,
11 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
(1/11) THREAD👇Let’s talk about the BLOODY HISTORY BEHIND THE BARBER’S POLE. For centuries, barbers and surgeons had separate guilds, but these were merged by Henry VIII in 1540 when he granted a charter to the Company of Barber-Surgeons. 
(2/11) The edict also allowed the bodies of four executed criminals to be anatomized annually at public demonstrations, and the teaching of anatomy became an important function of the Company.
(3/11) Barber-surgeons performed a variety of services: they lanced abscesses, set bone fractures, picked lice from hair & pulled rotten teeth. One of the keystones of the barber-surgeon's duties was BLOODLETTING. It's this last service which epitomizes the barber’s pole.
(4/11) Barber-surgeons, like other craftsmen, were aware of the need to advertise their services. In medieval London, some placed bowls of their clients’ blood in their shop windows. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that you may be overdue a bloodletting. Image: @ExploreWellcome.
(5/11) By 1307, Londoners had had enough of the barber-surgeons’ bowls of congealed, putrid blood. A law was passed that stated: "no barbers shall be so bold or so hardy as to put blood in their windows." A new method of advertising was needed. Thus, the barber’s pole was born.
(6/11) The barber's pole originated from the rod that the patient gripped to make their veins bulge, thus making them easier to slice open. A brass ball at the top symbolized the basin that collected the blood.
(7/11) The pole's red and white stripes represent the bloodied bandages, which would be washed and hung to dry on the rod outside the shop. The bandages would twist in the wind, forming the familiar spiral pattern we see on the barber poles of today.
(8/11) In 1540, an edict was passed that required barbers & surgeons to distinguish their services by the colours of their pole. From that point, barbers used blue & white poles, while surgeons used red & white poles. In the US, you can often find red, white, & blue poles.
(9/11) One interpretation: the red represents arterial blood, blue represents venous blood & the white represents bandages. Spinning barber poles are meant to move in a direction that makes the red (arterial blood) appear as if it were flowing downwards, as it does in the body.
(10/11) In 1745, the Barbers and the Surgeons went their separate ways. The Barbers retained the Hall, the silver and much of the treasure; the surgeons founded the Company of Surgeons, forerunner of the Royal College. Image: @ExploreWellcome.
(11/11) I recently spoke to @joerogan on #JRE about barber poles & I wanted to share some further history with you here. I hope you enjoyed this thread! If you want to know more, check out my video on my YouTube channel, #UnderTheKnife:
