The Origin of The White, Red and Blue Barber Pole

    One of the service provisions currently in high demand in society is barbershop services or more commonly known as haircut services. Briefly, they seem similar, but apparently they are different. Simply put, hair trimming is a simple traditional haircut service, while a barbershop is a modern version of haircut services. The striking differences can be observed in the tools, services and tariffs. At a barbershop, the tools used are more comprehensive, there are hair washing services and of course the tariffs are more expensive. In contrast to common haircut services, the tools used are simple and basic, there are no hair-washing services but the tariffs are more affordable, in other words cheaper.

    Perhaps you who have been a long-time barbershop customer, have noticed one thing: every time you visit a barbershop, your attention is drawn to the white, red and, blue striped pole there at the barbershop. Several days ago (after publishing this article), I went to a barbershop, upon entering, my eyes were immediately drawn to the oval pole, and I suddenly asked myself, "Why is that pole installed at every barbershop, and what is the meaning / purpose behind it?". To satisfy my curiosity while expanding my knowledge, I finally decided to study the origin of the oval pole, and the following is a summary;

    Haircut services have existed since the Middle Ages. Barbers at that time were not only famous for their skills in cutting hair and trimming beards, but they were also well-known for their expertise in the medical field, such as performing bloodletting with leeches, dental operations, wound treatment and so on. Over time, barbershop became significantly more popular and spread across various regions, offering services ranging from haircuts to medical operations. Entering 1308, haircut services had increasingly spread to the United Kingdom. News of the growing popularity of these haircut services eventually reached the king of the United Kingdom at that time. Upon learning about it, the United Kingdom summoned a professional barber from France named Richard le Barbour.

    Then he was ordered by the king to seek and record competent barbers according to the standards. Several times after that, an agreement was conceived among the government authorities of the time, announcing that barbers were not allowed to perform any medical operations. As a consequence of this policy, from that time on, barbers eventually only offering haircutting and beard-trimming services, while medical operations were completely entrusted to surgeons.

    Then an institution named the United Barber-Surgeon's Company was established by the order of the English Parliament at that time. Next, the institution issued a regulation for the installation of a special pole to distinguish barbershops from medical operation sites. As a result, barbershops were equipped with a striped pole featuring a combination of white, red, and blue, while surgical practice sites were equipped with a pole featuring a red-and-white color scheme only.

    According to rumors, this color combination of white, red, and blue was not chosen randomly, there are meanings behind the selection of these 3 colors. White represented the bandages used to cover patients' wounds at the beginning, red symbolized blood, and blue represented the veins. Afterwards there are two circles (half-circles) at the top and bottom: the top circle signified as basin to hold leeches, while the bottom circle represented a basing to collect patients' blood

Note

    This English version is provided for readers who prefer English. The original Indonesian article is available on mashilman.com, check it out here

That's all, and I hope this is useful 🌟

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