Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Chris Rock's Tries to Define "Good Hair"


"Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" And so began Chris Rock's mission to find out what that term even means. Good Hair (out October 9) is the result.

The doc-style film surprisingly enough manages to dish out quite a few facts. We learned how women are willing to spend thousands on fake hair, about devout Indians who sacrifice their long locks never knowing where it actually ends up and what's really in those toxic relaxing creams.

What I wanted to know was why women went through all this just to get long straight hair that moved in the wind and why little girls as young as four were already acknowledging that their coarse hair was bad. The film - made by four men - merely skimmed the surface here. Plus, what do you think is a major motivator to get plucked, permed and burned? Men. And I'm not saying they're the cause of it because women have the vicious ability to knock each other down, too. If we stopped rating our natural bodies, then maybe we'd get somewhere.

Perhaps this movie will encourage women to openly discuss what's on their head as freely as they talk about the clothes on their body. Or perhaps they'll realize that there's nothing "good" or "bad" it - it's just hair! Those terms only come into play when you compare it to someone else's. And just like the grass is always greener, the hair is always straighter, longer, curlier, bouncier and cuter. So might as well love what you're rocking.

I felt Good Hair had good intentions and though it could have dove deeper into the emotional and self esteem issues tied into our hair, it least it cracked the door open for talk while cracking me up.

Good Hair: 3/5 Toasties



Image: wildaboutmovies.com

9 comments :

  1. Hey Dorkys...how are you? Although I doubt I'll see the movie as I'm a movie slacker...I do like the subject. It plays into the ever lasting theme of "no one is ever happy with their own bodies"... hair, shape, etc.

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  2. Hey!

    I am going to be posting an award for you in the next half hour. Come by soon!

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  3. I'm just happy that this movie is going to get people talking. I'm going to rent this when it comes out since I rarely make it to the movies these days:)

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  4. I laughed when I saw the trailer for this movie. I agree, it probably only skims the surface of what is beneath it....and besides body image in and of itself, it can touch into racial issues as well. What's beautiful, what's not, etc etc etc. Frankly, I love that the Black women I know who get to have funky, different do's whenever they wanna pay for it. Me? I get to either straighten it so it stays tamed down, or let it loose and look like a lioness that did NOT comb her mane. EVER. :) I usually opt for the lioness, in a pony-tail.

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  5. As women we never seem to be happy with what we have and always seem to want what the other has. Where lovely ladies such as yourself are paying to straighten, those like me pay big money to have those waves put in.... and vice versa with the straightening.

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  6. All I can say is: desrizado, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.... :-P

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  7. I think Chris Rock really rocks. I like his attitude and humor.

    L'angelo con i capelli neri lo ha avuto dal primo sorriso bello.

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  8. I honestly don't get what the obsession is with "good" hair, clothes, figures, etc. I'm personally of the opinion that at least some of the medical issues people have are caused by all the rubbish they put on themselves in order to make themselves in to the perfect person they think they need to be in order to be liked. Well, sod that! My hair is what it is, my skin is what it is, and if people don't like it... Tough!

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