It wasn’t easy for comedian Chris Rock to gain support for his latest project, he said. Who in the world would be interested in a movie about black women’s hair?
Apparently, lots of people. In January, the documentary won a special jury prize at the Sundance film festival and today, “Good Hair” opens in theaters nationwide. In Atlanta, groups of black women have planned outings to see the movie and some have scheduled discussion groups to follow.
Rock knew he had to do something when his daughter, Lola, asked why she didn’t have good hair. For the uninitiated, good hair is a term used to define hair that is straight, long or flowing. Rock illustrates this in the opening sequence with a montage of Hollywood images that fade into scenes from Atlanta’s Bronner Bros. International Hair Show.
In the film, Rock follows four hair show competitors as they prepare for the spotlight. He visits hair salons in California, the Dudley Beauty College in Greensboro, N.C., and flies to India to investigate the religious ceremony in which hair is shorn from women’s heads only to later be made into wefts for weaving.
Interviewees — including actress Nia Long, video vixen Melyssa Ford and the Rev. Al Sharpton — are forthcoming about the issue of good hair as they delve into the mysteries of “creamy crack” (chemical hair relaxer), “tumble weaves” (pieces of hair weave blowing down the streets of LA) and why African Americans have such a small financial stake in what’s on top of their heads.
But Rock makes it clear: he’s not offering some treatise on black people’s hair. He just wants you to be entertained. While in town promoting the movie, Rock and Long shared their thoughts on good hair.
Q: What was your initial reaction when your daughter asked why she didn’t have good hair?
Rock: You kind of flinch a little bit. You don’t want to overreact because then she will have a complex about her hair. It could have just been something she was saying ... but even before that I had stumbled on a Bronner Bros. show years ago, and I always thought that was a movie. It’s a real interesting world.
Q: Did anything in the film surprise you?
Rock: In the movie, the economics surprised me. Like wow, we spend a lot of money. I’m like, “Pepa, [Sandra Denton, half of the female rap group Salt N Pepa] ... you wish you had the 150 grand back don’t you?’”
Long: That surprised me. I didn’t realized [Pepa’s] hairdo came from the fact that she had a chemical burn. I thought they were actually just trendsetting. I kind of knew the whole religious sacrifice thing, but to actually visually see it ... that was shocking. You hear about it, but we are so far away and the hair is already on our head. We’re not really worried about whose hair it is, but then you see whose hair it actually is and it’s kind of like, omigod, I feel a little guilty. Maybe I should re-evaluate this whole weave thing.
Q: What has been your biggest hair disaster?
Rock: [answers for Long] Wednesday.
Long: That was makeup. Um. Oh, my hair was a really nice length but I wanted something different. It was really thick and pretty ... but I didn’t have the money to have a proper haircut, so I went to one of the beauty colleges and I left looking like Suzy Chapstick.
Rock: When was this?
Long: Right out of high school.
Rock: Oh, I was getting ready to say ...
Long: It was so not cute and everybody was like why would you ever do that to yourself? It looked bad.
Rock: I’ve had Jheri Curls and S-Curls, California Curls, [actor] Terrence Howard curls.
Q: Does everyone in Hollywood have a hair enhancement?
Rock: Everybody has something in their hair.
Long: Even white girls. It’s not just black people. You do what you need to do to be beautiful.
Rock: What I have learned in this movie is to a lot of women ... being beautiful is the most important thing in their life.
Long: I would agree.
Rock: It is higher than being healthy. Than being smart. Than being anything. It is the number-one priority in their life.
Long: I think smart is probably first for me.
Rock: Now.
Long: Now, right. Ask me five years from now. Here’s the thing. Beauty gets you the attention that you need to actually make your smarts important or heard. It’s like the first thing you see.
Q: Will you let your daughters get relaxers?
Rock: Not as kids. When they are in their teens, it’s their choice. They are my kids, but they are not MY kids. You know what I mean?
Long: It’s interesting that you know that. Not that many people get that concept of being a parent.
Rock: I mean, yeah, I don’t own them so, you know. It is a rite of passage. They are going to have to figure out who they are and, unfortunately, burning their scalp is one of those things. It’s a rite of passage like in Africa, the kids go to the cave and stay for six weeks and come out and you’re a man and there are all these weird ceremonies. Burning a woman’s scalp is like ... a female bar mitzvah.
Long: A black woman’s bar mitzvah.
Rock: Yes, it’s a black woman’s bar mitzvah.
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