Good Hair

by Max Segal | 12:47 pm 11/07/2010

Directed By Jeff Stilson (4/5)

Comedian Chris Rock explores conventional beauty and in particular the idea of Good Hair in this hilarious, compelling, and star-studded documentary. You have to give Rock and director Jeff Stilson credit for broaching the highly sensitive topic of how women, specifically black women, view themselves. How can one be critical of practices like the use of toxic chemicals as “hair relaxers,” or spending thousands on weaves, without pissing off more than a few women in the process? It's a really touchy subject, and you can feel this when you watch it, because Rock seems to hold back most of the time when he interviews women about their hair.

Rock is a concerned father on a quest to find out what's best for his young daughters. What he finds is a billion-dollar beauty products industry that is complex and contradictory. On the one hand, conventional beauty has a heavy European bias, but on the other, much of the hair-related tradition is so deeply ingrained in black culture that it is an important and positive institution for the community. Good Hair presents a wide variety of opinions and perspectives from an array of black celebrities, but my favourite quote is from rapper and actor Ice-T, who says, “Trust me, if a woman ain't happy with herself she gonna bring nothin’ but pain to every-fuckin’-body around her.”

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