I painted this old barber's pole from a photo I took when I was travelling the coast of Devon.
They are one of the oldest icons of the western high street and date back to medieval times. It began when dentists were the only profession that had the tools to cut hair too.
In a time when there was no anesthetic or other means to make dentistry less bearable, people tended to bleed a lot when visiting. So to combat this, many rags were used to soak up the mess. Again, during a time where resources were simple and scares, these blood soaked rags were then hung out to dry so they could be reused on the next poor soul.
Blood is infamous for staining. So these rags were pretty much always red-ridden. Those dentists/barbers on a busy high street had only one place to hang them and that was out of a window on a pole to help hang multiple rags at once.
Now imagine the wind catching these long rags, as they twirls around a pole...
