I hope Chris Rock does so well with this that he takes on more doc projects. He’s great in this – he comes across as an eager listener, a thoughtful commentator and his humor has an uncharacteristically gentle and generous nature that I really enjoyed.
The movie is essentially a look into the multi-billion dollar Black haircare industry, and Chris gets a lot of fairly famous and well-placed people to talk about their complex relationship with their hair. The results are by turns funny, sad, and surprising. Sometimes surprising to the point that I, a life-long Black person who has generally had hair, learned a few things. The section where Chris goes to India and learns where most of the hair in all those weaves comes from was especially enlightening to me. Spoiler Alert: Human hair is one of India’s biggest exports, but the people who are shaved to provide it don’t receive a cent of the profits. Chris doesn’t dwell on that particular injustice, but it almost merits its own movie.
The part about relaxers and their attendant burns wasn’t news to me. I’m hip to the drama and injury that attends forcing African hair into a European mold, both physically and psychologically. What I didn’t know a lot about was how expensive weaves had become. Seeing a schoolteacher waiting patiently for the opportunity to get a thousand-dollar weave kind of blew my mind grapes. I know what schoolteachers get paid. There’s a certain sorrow you feel about the fact that people don’t think they will be loved or taken seriously without Jessica Simpson hair, but somehow realizing how much they’re forced to pay to get it really drives the sadness home.
The climax of the movie is the Bronner Brothers International Hair Show in Atlanta – a festival of strange and perplexing hair choices that serves as our viewport into the commercial side of Black Hair in America. I’ve never been to a hair show, but I’ve heard of them. I had no idea what kind of Vegas-style extravaganzas they are. If you’re as new to that phenomenon as I was, you’ll be amazed too.
“Good Hair” is a thoughtful, nuanced take on a painful and complex topic. There are plenty of easy laugh lines that Chris passes up to get to the heart of his subject. I hope we’ll get to see him in a role like this again.
Recommended. But hurry up. I can’t imagine it’s gonna be in theaters too much longer.
