“NO SPLIT ENDS HERE”
Starring: Chris Rock, Maya Angelou, Marvet Britto, Vanessa Bell Calloway, and Rhonda Cowan
Directed by: Jeff Stilson
Genre: Documentary, Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language including sex and drug references, and brief partial nudity.
Release Date: October 2009
By John Delia
There are several documentaries at theaters these days, but how about a comical one that’s enjoyable? What about one called Good Hair? Actually who would have thought that hair is funny? Well Chris Rock shows how funny it could be in this hilarious doc on women keeping it cool with extensions and sodium hydroxide.
Chris Rock takes his HBO show on the road and visits hair salons, hair conventions, hair laboratories, hair retailers, hair growers and even a barbershop to make his point. What is the point you ask? That black women are going too far for beauty.
First of all there’s the danger. In order to relax the hair and make it straight sodium hydroxide is applied to the woman’s hair. According to one interviewee, when you can feel the burning, wash it off. That burning comes from the chemical and for those who risk having it done, it brings on excellent results. Rock takes us on that journey and more.
Hitting women’s pocketbooks real hard, we find in the film that it can cost
thousands of dollars in one sitting to get long hair with special real hair extensions. But it doesn’t stop there. After a few months there are tightening, styling and a never-ending care that’s laborious and costly. Sounds like a chore? Not for the ladies who can now fling their hair around like a blonde on a TV commercial or their favorite pop star who probably pays tons more than they did at the local beauty parlor.
Most of the hair is grown in India where Buddhist Temples collect it from female believers and sell it to marketers. It’s the sellers who make the most money getting upwards of $25,000 for a luggage case full. While other parts of the world are contributing, it’s Indian hair that most women wear.
Telling you more about the doc would spoil all the fun and Chris Rock explodes with details that made me laugh so hard my abs hurt. Yeah, I have abs. His delivery and interview talent really makes the movie work. Keeping the interviewees serious while we laugh at the subject matter is key to a fun and informative documentary and Rock delivers.
The only negative here is pocket change and that’s not what it costs for good hair. Men, heed Chris’s calling and start teaching your young girls that money doesn’t grow on trees, it grows on heads.
Good Hair is rated PG-13 for some language including sex and drug references, and brief partial nudity, but it all ties into the script.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A fun doc and that’s a fact. And I am not splitting hairs either.