Did you know that there is only one manufacturer of barber poles in North America? The William Marvy Company sell only about 500 of those captivating and seemingly endless red, white, and blue spinning poles.
Those barber poles now symbolizes barbershops where men can get groomed to their liking and their fill for small talk for the day. But did you know that barber also performed surgeries and dental work? And before that, they were prevalent religious figures, even performing marriages and baptizing. Just imagine going to the barbershop to get a tooth extracted, a surgery, bloodletting, haircut, and a shave all at the same time! t must been a great time to live back then.
Why is are the barber poles red, white, and blue? Well, the red is to represent the bloodletting and surgeries while the white is to indicate the hair barbering. It is unknown why the blue was introduced; some believe it was to represent the color blue in veins, others believe it was added to become more patriotic.