Good Hair

Plots: Chris Rock explores the wonders of African-American hairstyles. Chris Rock, a man with two daughters, asks about good hair, as defined by Black Americans, mostly Black women. He visits Bronner Brothers’ annual hair convention in Atlanta. He tells us about sodium hydroxide, a toxin used to relax hair. He looks at weaves, and he travels to India where tonsure ceremonies produce much of the hair sold in America. A weave is expensive: he asks who makes the money. We visit salons and barbershops, central to the Black community. Rock asks men if they can touch their mates’ hair – no, it’s decoration. Various talking heads (many of them women with good hair) comment. It’s about self image. Maya Angelou and Tracie Thoms provide perspective. Chris Rock, a man with two daughters, ventures on a quest to find what it means to raise her children with a heavily influencing industry that deals with black women’s hair. On his quest, he visits Bronner Brothers’ annual convention, home of the most top educational site on teaching black woman how to use different hair care products that are sold there. Afterwards, he shows us a product called Relaxer, that uses dangerous chemicals such as sodium hydroxide to straighten woman and sometimes men’s hair. Within further discovery to a booming industry, he does his own research in to weaves such as where it how it’s applied, where it comes from, and who it comes from. Near the end, we learn about the one on one contributors to the multi-billion dollar industry: salons and barbershops and how their effect on the community is substantial. The overall message is about self image, and whether it’s worth the investment to pay for something that is just for show.