medieval barbers and nothing of consequence

okie dokie, so I am trying to keep my blog updated daily. I want my blog to be more than random chatter, in a world filled with random chatter, I want it to mean something, to somebody. I am still trying to figure out what to blog about that would be of any use to people...

I want to listen more, so that I have more to say that matters.

So, until I figured that out I will keep blogging about nothing of consequence. I had fun doing a bit of research on SPAM on my last blog. I am a person that likes random knowledge. I want to know WHY, with everything. There has to be a reason why things are the way they are, what is their origin?

That leads me to today's blog about medieval barbers...

I took my boys to the barber shop to get a fresh haircut. This was my babies first hair cut. I take the lazy gardener approach with hair and boys for the time being...If I get their hair cut super short, that means I have to get their haircut less often, so yes, I went with the ol' high and tight... ( military term for super short)

                                               
                                         While at the barber I was drawn to this fellow


the old comforting barber pole



I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of research into the origin of the symbol posted outside of male hair establishments

What I found was very interesting. All of the information was gathered from Wikepedia

*the first barbers in medieval times were actually surgeons

*the history of the pole was associated with bloodletting

*the first barbers also did tooth extractions

*the original pole had a brass wash basin at the top-( a representation of a bowl to keep leaches in), and a brass wash basin at the bottom (a representation of a basin that received the blood)

*the pole itself represented the staff that the patients held unto as they were getting "surgery"

*the red stripes around the pole represented bandages that were placed on the patient after blood letting.

There you go, random knowledge, I thought it was pretty interesting, did you???

Happy Monday!!!