Good Hair

Year: 2009

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Stilson

Review

chris rock documentary about black people’s hair. it’s really well done and chris rock interjects some humor while also holding people’s feet to the flame a little bit. for example, i knew that black women would get a weave done to have long, flowing hair and i knew that it would take several hours. however, i didn’t know that it could easily cost over $1,000 (+ the cost of the hair) to do so. when rock finds out about this he asks the women in the parlor what job they have that they can afford such an extravagance. it’s an interesting documentary because it touches on so much about our society and about black society. why does society generally reject black hair as beautiful? why did blacks turn away from the pro-black movement of the 70s? why do blacks buy 80% of the hair care products in the country? why does worrying about beauty manifest itself this way for blacks and in body image (liposuction, botox, breast implants, etc.) for whites? it caused me to think a lot about society and beauty and how we spend our money so i had a good time. the hair show competition, that he follows to add some narrative to the film, didn’t do much for me.