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 African hair — the subject of “Good Hair” — seems the kind of topic destined to be used to raise and indict issues like the effects of white culture on black culture, black culture for letting white culture influence it, black women for participating in a wasteful and potentially dangerous cosmetic farce, and even exploitative global trading practices.
And while those criticisms are certainly implied, at its heart, “Good Hair” is mostly just a neat bit of cultural anthropology that asks a lot of questions and lets the answers speak for themselves, without trying too hard to teach the world a lesson.
Chris Rock (“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”) starts with a simple frame for his examination of black hair care: His grade school-aged daughters want to know why they don’t have “good” hair; Rock doesn’t know what to say.
He embarks on an exploration of attitudes about “black” hair and the various nostrums, elixirs, potions and remedies used to “fix” it. He interviews actors (Nia Long, Raven-Symoné), musicians (Salt-n-Pepa, Ice-T), poets (the surprisingly funny Maya Angelou) and leaders (Rev. Al Sharpton), asking them to share their opinions and experiences relating to hair.
SUPPLY CHAIN
The result is kind of amazing. The black hair industry generates upward of $9 billion a year, and has created an international supply chain.
Rock traces the sources of chemical hair relaxer, which contains an active ingredient that dissolves aluminum cans in just a few hours, and delves into the semisecret world of hair weaves, many of which are made from human hair obtained from India. When the locks finally arrive in the United States., women will spend thousands to have them glued or sewn onto their heads.
Throughout his wanderings, Rock keeps coming back to four contestants preparing for the annual Bronner Brothers hair show. It’s the “American Idol” of black hairstyling, and the contestants spend months putting together elaborate styling routines. The show is presented as a sort of “state of the hair” benchmark in the industry, and the level of almost ridiculous elaboration the contestants display on the stage is illustrative of the fantasy that the industry and its consumers have created.
Fortunately, Rock doesn’t condemn the black predilection for elaborate hair maintenance, and he doesn’t even really judge it. He expresses a mild incredulity throughout, but accepts that people are going to do what they want to do, regardless of its lack of rational sense.
The absence of proselytizing allows the participants’ stories to speak for themselves. Aside from celebrity testimonials, Rock travels to different barber and beauty shops to talk to the practitioners and their customers about what they do.
What we end up with is more a documentary-style portrait, which is a million times more informative and entertaining than the lesson-style movie this easily could have been.
—Mike Robertson
Rating:
Not Yet Rated
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