Good Hair, 2009, 95 minutes, Rated PG-13

By Marona Lowe

Good Hair is a film that delves
most deeply into the sorority that some Black women have pledged
for years, combing through its tangled roots while also weaving a
contemporary tale with tracks from the Far East to the West Coast.
A mix of man-among-the-masses chats, one-on-one interviews and
investigative reports, Good Hair is a docu-comedy that entertains
as it teaches and preaches.

Personalities such as Eve, Ice-T, Maya Angelou, Nia Long,
Raven-Symone, Reverend Al Sharpton and Salt-n-Pepa sit down with
the comedian and talk hair, economics and intimacy. When Rock is
not interviewing celebs, he is out and about, researching the Black
hair industry and interviewing its purveyors, proprietors and
consumers.

A provocative documentary, Good Hair has its limitations. It
focuses on what is commonplace with a subset of contemporary Black
women while failing to fully embrace and spotlight the many Black
women who are comfortable with their natural hair and who have hair
that grow as long as Rapunzel’s locks (not because they purchase
it, but because their genes make it so).

The film also gives short shrift to the complicated history of
Black hair care and makes broad statements about Black women and
their hair that are not universally true. (i.e., the
intimacy-limiting, no-touch hair zone and the penchant to relax and
weave as indicative of race envy).

Take Good Hair for what it is – a narrowly-focused Black hair
documentary with a heavy dose of comedy. For a fuller exposition of
Nubian hair management, economics and history, check out:

• Stanley Nelson’s Two Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Madame
  C.J. Walker;
• Aron Ranen’s Black
  Hair Documentary (which explores the entities that control the
  black hair business);
• Soledad O’Brien’s Black
  In America (featuring a brief segment on the diversity of Black
  hair care); and
• Regina Kimbell and Jay Bluemke’s My Nappy ROOTS: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage (an
  award-winning, 2005 documentary that addresses the history, culture
  and economics of Black hair).

M

October 2009

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