Why do old barbershops have the colorful striped tube in front of their shops? Where did that trend originate

Answer 1

Long before there were surgeons or doctors there were barbers. Barbers had sharp cutting instruments so they were often pressed into service as surgeons and to treat patients by blood letting (making them bleed hoping to get the disease out of their body). They also used leaches and the brass top and bottom of he pole are brass to represent the basin used to hold them. The red and blue stripes stand for arterial (red) and venous (blue) blood that the barber would have seen a lot of. The bandages came from the barbers bloodletting and crude surgery (usually amputation), when the barber was finished with the bandages they would wash them and hang them on a pole to dry. Often the wind would wrap those bandages around the pole thus creating the symbol we know today.

At first a white pole was posted in front of the shop and then blue and red stained bandages were wrapped in a spiral pattern around the pole. In fact laws in France and England required their barbers to display this symbol, as an official part of their place of business.

Of course we have doctors and surgeons now days, but the barber pole is a traditional sign of barbers and so it is still used.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_pole
"A barber's pole is a type of sign used by barbers, a pole with white and red stripes.

The origin of the barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting. During medieval times, barbers also performed surgery on customers. The original pole had a brass basin at the top (representing the vessel in which leeches were kept) and bottom (representing the basin which received the blood). The pole itself represents the staff that the patient gripped during the procedure to encourage blood flow.

The red and white stripes symbolize the bandages used during the procedure: red for the blood-stained and white for the clean bandages. Originally, these bandages were hung out on the pole to dry after washing. As the bandages blew in the wind, they would twist together to form the spiral pattern similar to the stripes in the modern day barber pole. The barber pole became emblematic of the barber/surgeon's profession. Later the cloths were replaced by a painted wooden pole of red and white stripes.

After the formation of the United Barber Surgeon's Company in England, a statute required the barber to use a blue and white pole and the surgeon to use a red pole. In France, surgeons used a red pole with a basin attached to identify their offices. Blue often appears on poles in the United States, possibly as an homage to its national colors. Another, 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."

Answer 2

Barbers were originally surgeons of sorts. The barber pole consists of a spiral of red, white and blue stripes. The blue represents the veins, the red the bloodletting, and the white the sheets or bandages.

Answer 3

Barbers used to also be surgeons, the red was for blood, the white for bandages, the blue for veins.