WHERE HAVE THE BARBER POLES GONE? The Barber pole is becoming less a sight where ever there is a place that cuts the hair. As early as 1905, use of the poles was reported to be diminishing in the United States. Originally, the little shops which had a pole out front with faded red stripes on it, was a place where a surgeon would perform “Bloodletting procedure” on a client. The bloody bandages were wrapped around a pole in front of the store to dry. During the 17th century, barbers would perform various type so surgery, like removing teeth, sewing up wounds, enemas and removing blood spots. The poles usually mounted with a brass basin or pan under the pole to collect the blood drippings and the leeches when they would fall off the bloody bandages. The pole itself represents the staff that the patient would hold tightly while the procedure was being done. A, more fanciful interpretation of these barber pole colors is that red represents arterial blood, blue is symbolic of venous blood, and white depicts the bandage. The red and white pole outside barber shops references a time when barbers were expected to perform bloodletting and other medical procedures to heal the sick; red represented blood and white represented bandages. Barber surgeons in Rome also performed teeth extraction, cupping, leeching, bloodletting, surgery and enemas. Todays barber poles represent little more than being a barber shop that cuts hair and does shaves. The Barber Pole is some areas represent other practices, for instance prostitution. The barbers pole is used as a euphemistic way of advertising a brothel. In some countries, barbers poles are used both for actual barbershops and for brothels. Brothels disguised as barbershops, though the use of a single pole for the same reason is also quite common. Actual barbershops, are more likely to be hair salons; to avoid confusion, they will usually use a pole that shows a picture of a woman with flowing hair on it with the words hair salon written on the pole. Candy with the Red and White stripes around it is referred to as barber pole candy due to its colorful, swirled appearance. In the medical field, a nurse helper would be called a Candy stripe” helper. Personal information: As a kid, my dad use to take me to Joe Zambardino’s barbershop just off Washington Blvd. Joe built the little on chair shop in his backyard. I remember as looking like a sailor with tattoos, medium length shiny black hair, glasses with a wide frame and usually smoking a cigarette while he cut hair. He would either put you on a cushion mounted on a board to raise you up to his level or in the chair and pump the chair up. Joe would tell stories constantly. Even though there was a b/w tv in the little shop, if you wanted the latest gossip, then you would go to Joes for a cut. I remember my first shave by Joe. I climbed up into the big chair, after he finished cutting my hair, he did some adjustments to the chair which enabled it to lay back. The Joe reached for his soap mug and brush and began pushing the brush up and down in the cup. Soon Joe has some soapy foam coming from the glass coffee mug. Then he reached for his straight razor and begun to slide it up and down the leather strap hanging from the chair. To test if it was sharp enough he would yank a single hair from my head and proceed to cut it in half. He then would begin brushing the soap onto my face. At that time, I really did not have any whiskers yet, so he soaped me up around the ears and sideburns. After he had used the straight razor on me then he wrapped steaming hot towels around my face till they cooled and he finished another cigarette. Joe pulled the towels off and put outside on the fence to dry. Then patted some aftershave on my face and lastly came the white powder which he brushed on. Now I was thru. Now I felt like a big kid. Do you remember your first hair cut?
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:45:53 +0000