A barber’s pole signifies the place where barbers perform their craft. The pole’s colored stripes originate from barber surgeons who practiced bloodletting. Patients squeezed a stick to make their veins prominent for bloodletting. The red stripes represent blood, while white stripes represent bandages used to stem bleeding after the procedure.
In 1540, English barber surgeons formed the Company of Barber-Surgeons. This company split in 1745 to create the separate Company of Surgeons and Company of Barbers as professions evolved.
Barber poles can be stationary or rotate. Spinning poles became common in the 1920s and 1930s when experimental psychologists studied visual illusions using spinning barber poles. Recently, fewer shops use spinning poles due to decreasing barber shops and regulations prohibiting moving signs.
Despite changes in medicine and culture, the iconic barber pole preserves a symbolic link to the past. In South Korea, brothels even disguise themselves as barbershops with barber poles.
The modern spinning barber pole was invented by a young man named William “Bill” Marvy. Bill Marvy began working for a barber supply company in 1922 and soon started working on a new barber pole that became the symbol of barbershops across America.
Together, the red, white and blue stripes created the iconic barbershop pole symbolizing the blood, bandages, veins and arteries associated with the surgical procedures performed by barbers.
Patients would grasp a rod or staff tightly so that their veins would show, and the barbers would bleed them until they fainted. After the procedure, the washed bandages were hung outside on a pole to dry.
The Barber’s Pole is a symbol of the barber trade dating back to medieval times when barbers used poles to hang their tools outside their shops. Razors were found among relics from the Bronze Age, and the Bible mentions shaving.
In Europe, barber poles traditionally are red and white, while in America, the poles are red, white and blue. The red and white stripes represent the colors of the barber’s trade, while the blue stripe represents the medical aspect. The spinning motion of the pole is said to symbolize the swirling of blood during bloodletting.