by KAREN LAGRANGE COX
This barber shop, Main Street Barber & Color Studio, on Main Street in Broussard has a traditional barber pole outside of their entrance door. Although once symbolic, the barber poles are not as common to see in present day as was in previous times.
The red, white and blue helix stripes on the barber poles either rotated or were stationary. The purposes of the pole is to show the place is a barber shop and / or the availability of the barber.
According the the History Chanel website, in older days barbers did more than cutting hair and shaving beards. Some barbers pulled teeth, treated wounds and set bones. And some did bloodletting.
The red in the barber pole represents the blood while the white represents the bandages used to stop the bleeding. The History Channel web site states barber poles in Europe were read and white; blue was added in the United States of America (USA). A theory for the blue being added in the USA is the blue represents the veins; another theory is the blue was added for patriotism.
The Main Street Barber & Color Studio is located at 103 West Main Street in Broussard.
