The history of the barber's pole is fascinating and dates back to medieval times. Barbers didn't just cut hair; they were also the go-to practitioners for a variety of services, including bloodletting, a common medical practice at the time believed to balance the body and cure various ailments. Bloodletting stemmed from a belief that blood was the product of food, so when a person ate, the digested food was processed in the liver where it was turned into blood. The idea at the time was that if a person produced too much blood, this would lead to illness such as fevers, headaches and even the plague.
Bloodletting was seen as essential to medical practice but many physicians believed that bloodletting was beneath them. Those who needed bleeding were directed to the barbers, for whom this was a lucrative side line.
The barbers were aware of the need to advertise their services and did so in various ways. In medieval London, barbers placed bowls blood, taken in bloodletting, in their windows. This ensured that any passer by would be aware of the service & a blatant reminder that you might be due for your own bloodletting. In the early 14th century,following a public backlash to the practice of advertising bloodletting, a law was passed that stated: 'no barbers shall be so bold or so hardy as to put blood in their windows'. It then became common practice to dispose of the blood in the Thames.
