OK, just to be clear, this is what I mean by “barber pole”.
When I see a barber pole, I expect it to be attached to a barber shop. A barber shop, as I understand it, is a place where primarily male customers go for an efficient, low-cost grooming experience. I do not need an appointment to get a haircut at a barber shop. I can tell the barber, “Number 2, all the way around” and feel confident that he will happily give me that haircut, just as he has done for men for years. A barber shop should have copies of sports, automobile, and a few news magazines laying around.
But yesterday, for the second time in my life, I walked up to an establishment prominently displaying a barber pole, only to find that it was some kind of… salon. They expected me to have an appointment. They were selling all kinds of products that frightened and confused me. There were no back issues of Sports Illustrated. I can only guess that my haircut would have run significantly more than the $20 I had in my wallet. The matron at the front desk said I could wait, if I wanted to, but it would be at least an hour. There was a single person in the lobby waiting to go ahead of me. An hour?
OK, so normally I buzz my hair myself. But when I want to make sure I get a particulary good haircut, or when I don’t feel like making a mess in the bathroom, I go to a barber. Am I the only one who expects that, if you display a barber pole, you’re an actual barber? Is my vision of the barber shop totally out of line? What does the barber pole mean to you?
Or, just tell us a barber shop anecdote. Here’s mine: in the 90’s, when ER was hot and the George Clooney haircut was the fad, a young lad went to my barber, who was about 700 years old, and said, “Gimme a Clooney.” Barber replied, “George or Rosemary?” That still kills me.