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A Short History of
the Barber's Pole |
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The barber's trade is
indeed an
ancient one. Razors have been found among relics of the Bronze
Age circa 3500 B.C.
Barbering is mentioned in the bible by Ezeikiel who said "And
Thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barbers
razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thine
beard."
Barbering was introduced in Rome in 296 B.C. and barbers soon
became popular and prosperous. Their shops were centres for
daily news and gossip. All free men of Rome were clean-shaven,
while slaves were forced to wear beards. It is from the Roman
word "Barba" meaning beard that the word barber is derived.
About 334 B.C. Alexander the Great made his soldiers shave
regularly for the purpose of gaining an advantage in
hand-to-hand combat so that his warriors were able to grasp an
enemy by the beard, while they themselves were safeguarded in
this method of combat. The barbers of early days were also
surgeons and dentists. Since the barbers were involved not
only in haircutting, shaving and surgery, they formed their
first organisation in France 1904. Ambroise Pare, the father
of modern surgery and the greatest surgeon of the Renaissance,
began his career as a barber-surgeon.
The origins of the barber's pole appears to be associated with
the service of bloodletting. The original pole has a brass
basin at it's top representing the vessel which leeches were
kept and also represented the basin which received the blood.
The pole itself represented the staff which the patient held
onto during the operation. The red and white stripes
represented the bandages used during the procedure, red
for the bandages stained with blood during the operation and
white for the clean bandages. These would then be hung out to
dry after washing on the pole and would blow and twist
together forming the spiral pattern similar to the modern day
barber pole. So there we have the barber pole - a historic
link with surgery. Next Please!...
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