A barber is someone who shaves and cuts the hair of a client for business. In England, a barber was formerly also a surgeon, and they were called Barber-Surgeons. A London company of barbers was formed in 1308. The union of barbers and surgeons was dissolved in 1540 by an act of Henry VIII which stated that; 'No person using any shaving or barbery in London shall occupy any surgery, letting of blood, or other matter, except only drawing of teeth.' And that the surgeons were not to shave or practise 'barbery,' and the barbers were to perform no higher surgical operation than blood-letting and tooth-drawing. This continued until the time of George II. The signs of the old profession - the pole which the patient grasped, its spiral decoration in imitation of the bandage, and the basin to catch the blood - are still sometimes retained. The barbers' shops, always notorious for gossip, were in some measure the news-centres of classic and mediaeval times. Research Barber
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Research Barber