Hair supply

Chris Rock investigates black ’do business
in the compelling documentary Good Hair

ROCK SOLID: Good Hair

by CHRISTOPHER SYKES

Knowing the lengths to which many of his peers go to attain a head of free-flowing hair, funnyman Chris Rock teamed up with writer/director Jeff Stilson (his collaborator on the acclaimed Chris Rock Show) to delve headfirst into why so many African-Americans dole out the big bucks in the barbershop. What Rock didn’t know was how much money was exchanging hands.

According to the rant-master general himself (which itself is a contentious issue—filmmaker Regina Kimbell recently filed a $5-million lawsuit saying Rock lifted the idea from her doc My Nappy Roots), Rock got the idea for Good Hair when his five-year-old daughter came to him in tears, asking why she didn’t have “good” hair. He knew what his little girl was really asking: “Why don’t I have ‘white’ hair?”

A significant portion of the doc revolves around “hair relaxers,” a highly toxic paste of sodium hydroxide used to rid hair of unwanted curl. Donning an on-camera persona that recalls the dry wit of Michael Moore, Rock asks clients in a Harlem salon why they’d put their scalp through so much trouble. It takes the candor of a three-year-old having her hair “relaxed” for the first time to answer the question: “Because you’re supposed to.”

The multi-faceted Rock turns full-on investigative journalist while looking into less painful means of attaining the “perfect” coif. To try to shed light on the multi-billion-dollar hair-weave industry, Rock travels to India to look into where the hair used for high-priced extensions is coming from. Turns out human hair is one of India’s largest exports, and that upwards of 10 million women chop off their locks in Hindu temples each year in a religious sacrifice called tonsuring. The temples then sell the hair to entrepreneurs who process and sell it, mostly to beauty parlours in North America.

Rock uses his celebrity to discuss black hair with a plethora of A-list African-American celebrities including Dr. Maya Angelou, Eve, Meagan Good, and the Reverend of Mane, Al Sharpton. There’s a common consensus amongst them: that too many Americans of colour care far too much more about what’s on their head than what’s inside it. Check this out, it’s a good one.

GOOD HAIR OPENS
FRIDAY, OCT. 16