The barber pole is a surgery sign. π . . . Medieval barbers didn't just cut hair β they performed bloodletting, pulled teeth and amputated limbs. The red stripe is blood. The white is the bandage. The brass ball on top? The leech bowl. England only legally separated barbers from surgeons in 1745 under George II. The pole outside your barbershop is a 900-year-old advertisement for amateur surgery.
Source
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2006, 'The surgeon and the barber' by Mark Bishop; also Historia Medicinae and the Royal College of Surgeons of England archive on the 1745 separation
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