The Barber's Bloody Bandages -

Before A.D. 1000,. barbers visited monasteries to cut the hair of monks according to each order's tonsure or hair pattern.  The barbers, by acting as assistants, learned the air of chirurgery (literally 'hand work') - or surgery - and began such practices as tooth extraction, tooth scaling, abscess lancing, bloodletting and removal of urinary stones (ouch!)  The red and white spiral-striped pole originated from the barber-surgeons' practice of wrapping rinsed bandages around a red pole to dry.

Jeffrey Kacirk