Most people don’t know the sordid history behind the barber
pole
It’s strange to think that a little more than 50 years ago, most
men didn’t even shave their own faces. It was all done at the
barbershop.
Most people don’t know the sordid history behind the barber pole
It’s strange to think that a little more than 50 years ago, most men didn’t even shave their own faces. It was all done at the barbershop.
But as time continues to pass and today’s society continues to change, the old-fashioned barbershop is slowly losing its importance. Most men shave their own faces – in fact, many barbers don’t even do shaves anymore. And, if you haven’t noticed, barbershops continue to become harder to find, as they are replaced by hair salons and franchise haircutters.
“There’s seven barbershops in (Morgan Hill), and there’s probably about 50 beauty shops,” said Carlos Altamirano, a 58-year-old barber who owns Carlos Barbershop in Morgan Hill. “The barber business is a dying breed. I’ll bet you if I closed this place down and sold it, it would turn into a beauty shop.”
Stefan Medina, a 33-year old barber who works with Altamirano, has seen many of the same faces returning to the same barber time and time again.
“Some guys have been going to their wives’ beauticians for a long time,” Medina said. “They like this. They say they come here for the old style.
“This is a wild, old-style barbershop. They say ‘You don’t see this much anymore.'”
But as each aging barber retires or passes away, a piece of history slips away.
“They’re not being replaced,” said Frank Chavez, a 71-year-old barber from Hollister. “I’m 71, another guy is in his 70s, and one other guy is getting up there, too. I think we’re the last of the Mohicans. I don’t think anyone else is going to come in and open a barbershop.
“But as long as I can stand and it doesn’t bother me, as long as I can see all right and my hand doesn’t shake, I’ll continue working.”
As the red-, white- and blue-striped poles begin to fade into obscurity, there are still a few pieces of history left from the days of old-fashioned haircuts.
Barber poles
The barber pole has a unique history. Its original purpose was to be used in the early medical science of bleeding a patient. Bleeding was thought to be sort of a cure-all for many different diseases hundreds of years ago. Patients of the barber-doctor would hold onto the pole during the procedure.
The red and white stripes on the pole were made to symbolize two pieces of linen used in bleeding. The white linen was wrapped around the patient’s arm before the bleeding to make a vein stand out, and the red stripe represented the blood-stained linen used to soak up the wound at the end of the bleeding.
American barbers added the blue stripe in the early 1800s, although it was unknown whether it was because of patriotism or because of the blue-and-white barber poles that had sprung up in England at the time.
Barber poles began to become more symbolic after the time of bleeding passed, and barber poles ranged in size from 6- to 12-feet high and became quite extravagant. However, many of the more creative-looking poles disappeared when new laws outlawed them – and wooden-carved Indians seen at cigar shops – as a safety hazard.
Altamirano has an old barber pole outside of his shop in Morgan Hill. The pole is about eight feet tall. Although the pole looks authentic when compared with some designs of the time, it actually once served an entirely different purpose.
“It came off of an old Victorian house,” he said. The pole actually served as a post on the outside of one of those houses before Altamirano acquired it and painted it.
The history of the barber pole is relatively unknown to most, but it is a source of pride for barbers, who know the heritage behind their craft.
“The red, white and blue have meant that for a long time,” said Gilroy barber Luis Vasquez, who has red, white and blue colors painted in his painted in his parking lot, on his barber pole and on his sign outside of his shop. “Every year, I paint it again.”
The barber chair
A vintage barber chair is the most unmistakable sign that you’re inside a barbershop and not your average hair salon. Altamirano, Chavez and Vasquez all have vintage barber chairs – which now have become so rare that some are valued as high as $5,000.
Chavez has the oldest chair of the three.
“This used to belong to my boss, and he started barbering in the late ’30s,” Chavez said.
The barber chair comes in many different styles and is extremely heavy and solid. Some old chairs can’t even be raised or lowered or tipped back.
Shorter barbers were required to stand on boxes to cut a tall man’s hair.
The straight-edge razor
While Altamirano, Chavez and Vasquez all still use a straight-edge razor, Vasquez is the only barber who still shaves his clients. Since most men now shave their own faces at home, it’s kind of a rarity to have a man come in for a shave. But for the three area barbers, doing a straight-edge shave around the ears and neckline adds to the ambiance of the old-time barbershop.
“It’s just like the old days,” said Chavez, who still uses a barber’s mug and brush to apply shaving cream around a client’s neckline.
Many of the old-fashioned razor accessories can be found in Altamirano’s shop as well.
“They don’t make these anymore,” said Morgan Hill barber Stefan Medina, who shares Carlos Barbershop with Altamirano, as he showed off an old-time lathering machine.
The music
Since the early days of the barbershop, music has always been incorporated with getting a haircut.
In the time of the Greeks, live bands played in the shops, and in the early 1900s the “barbershop-style” of singing was named for barbershop quartets. Nowadays, walk into any barbershop and there’s only one type of music that is on the radio.
“You like this music? The oldies?” Vasquez asked. “You hear oldies every time you’re at the barber.”
Likewise, in Altamirano’s shop, the words of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” play from his old radio in the corner of the shop, “I wanna know/Have you ever seen the rain/Coming down on a sunny day.”
“(It’s) FFRL, oldies but goodies all day long, and no talking,” Altamirano said.
