Good Hair (Sunday, October 11, 2009) (147)

This is a documentary by comedian Chris Rock about the science and culture of black women's hair. I'm a bit baffled as to why Rock would make this - I mean he's never shown a heck of a lot of interest in hair before and I don't think he's a stylist by day or anything - but he actually takes the somewhat trivial topic and makes an interesting story about it.

He looks at all sorts of aspects of black hair, from historical trends (relaxer and straightening to weaves and hair pieces) to price and social impact. These sequences are intercut with the Bronner Bros. International Beauty Show, the Super Bowl and Oscars of the black hair industry rolled into one. The final day of the show is a competition where five hair stylists perform acrobatic routines showing their skills with scissors and showmanship. (The loudest and most flamboyant of the participants is Derrick J, sometimes seen on the Real Housewives of Atlanta, where he designs wigs with housewife Kim.)

But not all of the film is flash and glitter. Rock looks at how most of the companies who sell hair products to black women are white- or asian-owned. The few black-owned companies are well loved, but not nearly as big as their non-black counterparts. Rock goes to India to show how most hair weaves come from temples and holy sites where pilgrims have their black and brown hair shaved as pious offerings to god. This hair is then taken to the U.S. where it is sold (for thousands of dollars a weave) to the black community.

There is a look at how very traditional black hair (an Afro, say) is basically unwearable for black women as society expects wavy or straight shiny hair and not the tight curly hair that grows on their heads. This is a very sad observation - especially when we see this history of this bias, going back to Josephine Baker and other black celebrities of older generations.

Hair has been a political tool and a repressive agent by Whites over the Black community for centuries - and Rock shows how black women are now accepting this as standard now and embracing it. It's hard for me as a white guy to say that black women should fight back and wear their hair how they want, when it would seem that they want the expensive, uncomfortable and fragile hair - but it does make me a bit uncomfortable. Still, I appreciate this interesting, funny look at a topic I didn't know much about before.

Stars: 2.5 of 4