BADWest.org

You should be so lucky to see this film in a theater full of black women!
Hoopin’ and hollerin’ in delight and disgust, Chris Rock’s first documentary exceeded my expectations. And I can’t imagine anyone doing it better. Certainly no woman, for it would have been assumed that any woman asking these questions would have a bias. That was not usually the case with Rock. Oh, there was that tinge of judgment in his conversation with a 4- year old who was quite accustomed to getting hair relaxers. All in all, Rock’s comedic style warmed up and disarmed in places where there surely could have been contention.

It’s been reported that Rock had this film in mind for many years but the point of no return came when his eldest daughter asked, “Why don’t I have good hair?” So, Rock presents this cultural dilemma to us for all of our children. The film weaves around the annual “Bronner Brothers International Hair show in Atlanta”. The show puts on quite the spectacle and brings in big big money. Part of the phenomenon that is the multi-billion dollar black hair care industry is the lack of black manufacturers and distributors involved but Rock doesn’t spend too much time on that. Rock’s concern is with Black women’s obsession with “good” hair and part of that quest takes him to India. India is one of the largest exporters of human hair. Indians sacrifice their hair in a religious ceremony as a gift to God. The women in the row behind me were more horrified by this fact than any other in the film.

Back in L.A. and New York, Rock talks to celebrities and working class women who: admit their addiction to the “creamy crack” aka the relaxer, pay upwards of $1,000 for human hair, and don’t let there men go near their heads. Knowingly, these women admit their dependence to straight hair over their own but say it’s their choice.

Ice T, Rev Al Sharpton (creamy crack devotee) and men in barber shops all have their take on black women’s hair. Rock questions them in terms of financial burden and intimacy. One guy says that he seeks out women with “less maintenance”. That’s not the same as him saying I love women in their natural state or it doesn’t matter what’s on a woman’s head. Surely, men are as indoctrinated with the same standards of beauty as their women.
We black woman are diverse, no curl is the same. When the issue is hair, there is no faster way for us to bond together: hair, hair products, who does your hair and most recently, where was it purchased. It’s refreshing to consider why “Good Hair” is so important. Rock’s film does this while being objective, informing and very entertaining.

- Tiffany Judkins