A colleague asks, “What’s the deal with the barber pole? Does it represent anything, or is it just a flashy pole that some early haircutter stuck up?”
The dual arts of cutting hair and shaving faces have been around for a very long time, as have the barbers who practice them (razors dating from the Bronze Age have been found, and the “barber’s razor” is mentioned in the bible). For much of their early history, barbers did much more than just take a little off the top, though. Early physicians thought of some surgeries as being beneath them, so the tasks of mending wounds, blood-letting and extracting teeth fell to the barbers. For their dual roles of cutting hair and cutting veins, they were called barber-surgeons and later, when the College de Saint Come in Paris wanted to further distinguish between academic surgeons and barber-surgeons, “surgeons of the short robe.”
The striped poles you sometimes see outside barber shops are a legacy of the barber-surgeons’ practice of bloodletting. The typical barber-surgeon’s equipment for bloodletting or applying leeches consisted of a staff (for the patient to grasp, causing the veins of the arm to stand out sharply), a basin (to catch blood and hold leeches), and a number of linen bandages. Often, the bandages were tied to or twisted around the staff, which was capped with the blood bowl, so everything was together when needed. The equipment would then be placed outside, both to dry washed bandages and to act as an advertisement. With the help of a stiff breeze, the bandages—clean in some spots, permanently stained in others—would twist around the pole and create an unmistakable swirling red and white pattern.
Over time, bloodletting fell out of practice, and the tools of the trade disappeared from barbers’ shops as they concentrated on hair. (Some stubbornly continued to practice medicine; in 1745, England passed legislation to permanently separate barbers from surgeons.) To maintain tradition and advertise their services with a recognizable symbol, many barbers placed wooden poles outside—painted with stripes and topped with a ball, to resemble the staff/bandage/basin arrangement. The modern barber pole was born. [Image courtesy of Hillsdale Barn Antiques.]
Many of today’s poles feature rotating, light-up cylinders and weather-resistant plastic and steel parts. Most of these poles probably came from the William Marvy Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, which has, for decades, been the dominant producer of barber poles in the USA. Company founder William Marvy got his start as a barber supply salesman in the 1920s. He was convinced that he could produce a better barber pole than the ones he’d been pushing, so he launched his own company. By 1950, he perfected his version of the barber pole. The Marvy model featured a Lucite outer cylinder, cast-aluminum housing and stainless-steel fittings, making it lighter, sturdier, and more durable than the other poles available.
By the late 1960s, two of Marvy’s competitors had gone out of business, and his other two rivals were farming out their pole manufacturing to his factory. Soon enough, the Marvy Company was the only game in town, and in the country.
William Marvy, the only non-barber in the Barber Hall of Fame, died in 1993, but the company is still going today under the direction of his son, Bob. Annual pole sales are down to about 600 (compared to 5,100 in 1967), but the company keeps itself busy selling replacement parts and grooming supplies, and restoring old poles. If you’re in the market for a barber pole, they still offer seven different revolving or non-revolving and stand- or wall-mounted models.
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I’ve heard that explanation for the red and white stripes and it makes sense, but is there an explanation for why the blue stripe is included?
posted by Tony on 3-25-2010 at 3:30 pm
that was crazy fascinating.
posted by natasha on 3-25-2010 at 3:34 pm
Thanks for this article. My eight year old was just asking yesterday what the significance of the barber pole was, and I didn’t know. I told her I would look it up, forgot, and leave it to Mental Floss to meet our strange intellectual needs!
posted by Jennie Narraway on 3-25-2010 at 3:39 pm
That’s kinda creepy about the duel surgeon/barber role, since a character on a childrens cartoon ‘the misadventures of flapjack’ is infact a barber who is obsessed with being a surgeon
posted by Sam on 3-25-2010 at 4:08 pm
I’ve heard that the blue stripe represents the snake of Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus is the 13th astrological sign. The myth around him is that he had a snake that could heal people if it bit them. This is why there are two snakes on the commonly used medical symbol called the “caduceus.” Has anybody else heard this?
posted by Carolyn on 3-25-2010 at 4:21 pm
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s a Barber Hall of Fame? To answer my own question — YES! The Football Hall of Fame and Barbering Hall of Fame in the same state? Truly an embarrassment of riches for Ohio.
By the way, Marvey’s picture on the HOF website shows one amazing fact that I’m surprised escaped mental_floss researchers — he was almost totally bald!
posted by Pete on 3-25-2010 at 4:43 pm
@Sam: Ha! I immediately thought of Dr. Barber too! That show’s very clever, and the writers apparently know their history.
posted by Cara on 3-25-2010 at 5:08 pm
just fyi, Bible should be capitalized.
really interesting article. I always wondered about those, but since I’m from a family of girls who are sent to a salon instead of a barbershop for haircuts, I never got to see one up close.
posted by Regina on 3-25-2010 at 5:10 pm
Hmm thats a good one.
Like Jennie I was meaning to research this but forgot about it…
O MentalFloss… Love it.
posted by Chrystani on 3-25-2010 at 5:55 pm
@Tony,
The blue stripe appears to have first been added under the English legislation mentioned in the post. Barbers displayed blue and white poles to distinguish them from surgeons, who were made to display red poles. Why that color system was picked, I have no idea. One hypothesis floating around is that the blue stripe represents veins, which doesn’t make much sense, as barbers were compelled to use the blue stripe AFTER they gave up bloodletting.
As far as the blue stripe’s continued use after centuries of separation between medicine and hair cutting, Bill Marvy’s preferred theory was that it was a patriotic gesture on the part of American barbers.
@Carolyn,
Had not come across that idea before and am not finding anything on it now.
@Pete,
I don’t know if I’d call Marvy’s male pattern baldness amazing. I’d imagine he had a full head of hair in his younger days.
posted by Matt Soniak on 3-25-2010 at 6:24 pm
I am proud to say that I knew about the barber poles! It’s funny how random facts from a 4th grade field trip to Williamsburg will stick with someone!
posted by Kerri on 3-25-2010 at 11:56 pm
I remember my father telling me when I was younger that the poles were to signify barber shops universally for the illiterates that were more common back in the day. But hey, now I can tell HIM what it means! Whooohooo!
posted by MamaBug on 3-26-2010 at 2:46 am
@ Jeannie
My 9 year old son asked me about them this past week and I had forgotten to research as well. Good old Mental Floss!
@ Sam and Cara
I think all of Flapjack gets a bit creepy.
posted by Diane on 3-26-2010 at 4:18 am
Something off the beaten path…
Is it just me or are barber shops fantastic!? It is like walking into a time warp: the styles, the smells, the chauvinism, etc.
When I was a lad, I used to get a Crew Cut several times a summer from a barbershop (for all those unaware, please use wiki.) Stan was my barber and I gotta tell you, he probably smoked three cigarettes by the time my cut was done, told every dirty joke in the book and left you with a smile and an itchy head…
But back then, you could get a lot of services at the barber shop. For example, you could get a beard trim, a close shave and a hot towel treatment. Nowadays, I don’t even think they offer half of those…as I found out the day before my wedding when one of my bucket list items was to get a strait razor shave…
posted by Mick on 3-26-2010 at 10:38 am
The blue stripe signifies the sterilization of tools.
And to Mick, a real barbershop like mine still gives plenty of straight razor shaves, neck shaves, beard trims, hot towels, the works.
posted by Jim on 3-26-2010 at 11:28 am
Mick-
Did you have an onion tied to your belt, as it was the style at the time?
posted by Anthony on 3-26-2010 at 12:57 pm
I knew all about the barber-surgeon connection from watching Steve Martin on SNL as “Theodoric of York: Medieval Barber” :)
posted by Andrew on 3-26-2010 at 2:11 pm
The blue stripe is refering to the veins bulging from the patients squeezing the staffs arms. It tells you in the article
posted by Tiffany on 3-27-2010 at 10:15 am
Korea has a different use for these. If you see the barber pole, it means a massage parlor. 2 poles means a massage parlor with a happy ending.
posted by Lance on 3-27-2010 at 3:30 pm
There’s a barber hall of fame? Well huh, that’s kind of interesting, I had no idea!
posted by tess on 3-31-2010 at 7:35 pm
My barber (who uses a stright razor) was just telling me most people will get the order of the strips wrong. They will say it is red – white – blue repeating when it is actually red – white – blue – white repeating. There are two white stripes.
posted by Chris on 4-29-2010 at 9:45 pm