Barbers in London, Barber Shop History

Barber Shop history of the Barber Pole

www.PallMallBarbers.com

The barber's trade is an ancient one. Razors have been found among relics of the Bronze Age (circa 3500 B.C). Barbering is mentioned in the bible by Ezekiel who said "And Thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon the head and upon the beard."
Barbering was introduced in Rome in 296 B.C. and barbers quickly became both popular and prosperous. Their shops were centres for daily news and gossip. All free men of Rome were clean-shaven, while slaves were forced to wear beards. It is from the Roman (Latin) word barba, meaning beard, that the word "barber" is derived.
About 334 B.C. Alexander the Great made his soldiers shave regularly for the purpose of gaining an advantage in hand-to-hand combat so that his warriors were able to grasp an enemy by the beard, while they were safeguarded in this method of fighting. The barbers of early days were also the surgeons and dentists. Most early physician’s disdained surgery and the barbers did surgery of wounds, blood-letting, cupping and leeching, enemas and extracting teeth. Since the barbers were involved not only with haircutting, hairdressing and shaving but also with surgery, they were called barber-surgeons. They formed their first organization in France in 1094.
In an effort to distinguish between academic surgeons and barber-surgeons, the College de Saint Come, founded in Paris about 1210, identified the former as surgeons of the long robe and the latter as surgeons of the short robe. French barbers and surgeons were organized as a guild in 1391, and barber-surgeons were admitted to the faculty of the University of Paris in 1505. Ambrose Pare (1510-1590), the father of modern surgery and the greatest surgeon of the Renaissance, began his career as an itinerant barber-surgeon. His brother was a barber-surgeon and his sister married a barber-surgeon. In England the barbers were chartered as a guild by Edward IV in 1462 as the Company of Barbers.
The surgeons formed a guild 30 years later and the two companies were united by the statute of Henry VIII in 1540 under the name of the United Barber Surgeon's Company. In actual practice, however, barbers who cut hair and gave shaves were forbidden to practice surgery except for bloodletting and pulling teeth and surgeons were prohibited from "the barber of shaving." In France a decree by Louis XV in 1743 prohibited barbers from practicing surgery from the barbers by acts passed during the reign of George II. The surgeons with the title of "Masters, Governors and Commonalty of the Honorable Society of the Barbers of London." This body was subsequently dissolved and later replaced by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1800 during the reign of George III.
The origin of the barber's pole appears to be associated with his service of bloodletting. The original Barber pole has a brass basin at its top representing the vessel in which leeches were kept and also represented the basin which received the blood. The pole itself represented the staff which the patient held onto during the operation. The red and white stripes represented the bandages used during the procedure, red for the bandages stained with blood during the operation and white for the clean bandages. The bandages would be hung out to dry after washing on the pole and would blow and twist together forming the spiral pattern similar to the modern day barber pole.
The bloodstained bandages became recognized as the emblem of the barber-surgeon's profession. Later in time, the emblem was replaced by a wooden pole of white and red stripes. These colours are recognized as the true colours of the barber emblem. Red, white and blue are widely used in America due partly to the fact that the national flag has these colours. Another interpretation of these barber pole colours is that red represents arterial blood, blue is symbolic of venous blood and white depicts the bandage. After formation of the United Barber Surgeons Company in London, a statue required barbers to use a blue and white pole and surgeons to use a red pole. In France the surgeons of the long robe placed a red pole with a basin attached to identify their offices. The barber’s pole - a historical link with surgery.
Next! (Surgeon? Dentist? or Barber?) ...






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Barber Shop & Barbers in London

Our London Barbers

LOOK OUT FOR 'PALL MALL BARBERS' ON CHANNEL 4 THIS MONTH
Having been approached by the makers of a new documentary for CHANNEL 4, 'Pall Mall Barbers London' is due to appear in 'The Boy Who Was Born A Girl' on Friday Sept 4th at 8:00p.m. This is a positive, heart-warming story about a young man by the name of 'John' and focuses on his journey from boy to man, whilst coping with gender 'Dysphoria'. We were filmed giving John a gentleman’s hair cut and wet shave. As a first timer, it seems he found the whole experience, very relaxing and enlightening!!!

'CONDE NAST' PHOTO SHOOT.....ON LOCATION AT 'PALL MALL BARBERS'
It seems we are fast becoming a popular location for both film and editorial shoots. Recently we were asked by the 'Conde Nast' group, if they could use the barbershop as a location for the new 'House of Fraser' autumn menswear collection, campaign. By dressing the shop with 'union jack' bunting and other 1940's props, they brought a quintessentially British feel to the shop, for one morning! They felt it was a very fitting location to reflect this era...and we look forward to seeing the results in 'House of Fraser' stores, up and down the country.

PALL MALL BARBERS….IS GOING GLOBAL!!!
Thanks to joining forces with the shaving company ‘Kamisori Club’ in Japan, ‘Pall Mall Barbers’ is due to be seen all over the world! The ‘Kamisori Club’ have come up with the ingenious idea of publishing a ‘coffee table’ style photo book, after visiting and interviewing barbers in 37 countries around the world. This project is designed to represent a true portrait of barbers in each of these countries, by using photos of barbers at work in their barber shops and interviews with them
Barber Shop Review

27 Whitcomb Street, home to Pall Mall Barbers London, an old-style barber shop, which has been there since 1896. It is one of London’s hidden treasures and has at its shop-front the famous red-and-white rotating barber’s pole, which has an interesting history. In ancient Rome, barbers acted not only as shavers and hairdressers but also as surgeons and dentists, treating wounds, bloodletting, leeching and even extracting teeth. In England, barbers were chartered into a guild in 1462 by Edward IV as the Company of Barbers. In 1492, surgeons formed a separate guild and the two came together in 1540 under Henry VIII as the United Barber Surgeon’s Company. The red-and-white barber’s pole became a symbol of the bloodletting: the white bandages were the clean bandages and the red ones the bloody ones. They would be hung out to dry after washing on the pole, and would blow and twirl together in the wind to form the spiral pattern of the present-day red and white barber’s pole. Barbers have been featured in literature as well as in operas, such as The Barber of Seville. Barbers have been around for centuries, and they are proud of the fact. Indian hairdressers or hairstylists need not feel humiliated. It is time to restore the ‘Barber’ in Billu and be proud of it.
Barbers & Barber




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