My review of “Good Hair”

One day, Comedian Chris Rock’s daughter asked him “Why don’t I have good hair?” This innocent question led him to find out why his daughter would think such a thing. The result is the award-winning, informative and hysterical documentary “Good Hair”.

“Good Hair” examines the $9 billion industry of hair products for black women aimed at turning their naturally curly hair into straighter European or Asian style hair. The main ingredient for this transformation is known as relaxer, which primarily uses sodium peroxide. Although sodium peroxide is extremely dangerous and can severely burn one’s skin or hair, interview subjects in the film claim that practically every black woman has used it at least once in their life time. The film even shows some elementary school girls having it done in salons. Another product the film focuses on is the weave, which is essentially a track of extensions of real human hair that is stitched into one’s regular hair. This gives the hair shape and volume. Chris Rock discovers that India is the main source of hair for weaves, since twice a year Hindu temples have a ritual where women come and cut all of their hair off for free as a means of purification. The hair is then sold by the temples to distributors, which is then exported to the U.S. This begs the viewer to ask if these women living in a third-world country are even aware of how much their hair is worth. Many weaves sell in the U.S. for at least $1000, and some can reach up to $5000. Some salons even offer weaves on layaway. The film also goes into why black women feel compelled to spend so much time and money on their hair. Many feel it gives a sense of empowerment, and makes them feel beautiful. Others feel they cannot be taken seriously in the workplace or elsewhere unless they have straight, “good” hair.

I highly enjoyed the film, and it is difficult for me to really think of any criticisms. Chris Rock is naturally a hilarious on-air personality as the viewers follow him around the United States and India searching for answers on black hair. It was particularly interesting to see him in a more serious role, since we are used to seeing him doing stand-up comedy or comedic movies. I was also fascinated by the amount of information I learned from the film, as I was completely unaware of the amount of money women spent on their hair, the long hours they spend in the salon, and the fact that human hair was worth so much money. When I told a friend of mine that I saw the film, she told me one of her friends actually put up her hair on Craigslist for sale. A man in New York offered about $1500 as well as a plane ticket to New York so he could examine and cut the hair himself.

Overall, I felt it was a great documentary and well worth the watch. If you plan on seeing it soon, you may have to dig a bit deeper within your local movie theaters, as many of the mainstream theaters here haven’t been showing it.