
Now if you read my blog you know that I am a Muslim, African American woman who wears hijab. But I know much about the hair issue among my people. I can talk black hair with anyone. My own Afro-textured hair is a very important part of my life, something I have struggled with and eventually learned to embrace. Underneath my hijab I experiment with various natural hairstyles. And even if only family members can see my hair, I am still happy to be natural.
I finally watched Chris Rock’s Documentary “Good Hair”. On a scale of 1 to 5, I will give the movie a 3. I learned things about weaves, I had not none before. But it also made me cringe at other things. So I will give the pro’s and con’s of this movie and you can decide if you want to see this movie.
Pro’s:
1. It exposes the dangers of relaxers also known as sodium hydroxide.
2. Shows that Asians and Caucasians profit the most from the black hair industry.
3. Shows the ridiculous measures black women go through to keep their hair done.
4. Subtlety shows the deep rooted self hatred some black people have of their hair, to the point they would put poison on their hair to attain a beauty standard not their own.
5. Advocates black owned businesses
Cons:
1. Doesn’t sufficiently explore the rising number of black women wearing their hair natural.
2. Very subtlety makes Afro-textured hair seem inferior to straight hair.
3. Doesn’t get to the deep rooted reason why black women and men straighten their hair and prefer straight hair.
4. Doesn’t condemn the use of relaxers.
5. Too complacent.
6. Taking such a serious issue and trivializing it, esp. by making it a comedy.
7. Talks about silly things like “weave sex”.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I just wanted to mention a few things:
1. The coverage of the hair show in Atlanta was good but I think it took up too much time in the movie. More important topics could have been covered.
2. At the end of the movie Chris Rock states that he’ll tell his daughter, what she puts in her head is more important than whats on her hair. I have to disagree with this, because it seems he is letting the cycle of black self hatred continue on to the next generation.
3. Al Sharpton states that his relaxer is just as black as natural hair because it came from black culture. But what he is missing is that it came from a part of black culture that taught us to hate something that is natural to us and that Euro centric looks are more beautiful.
4. Raven Symone said that we (black people) want to fit in, as if being natural is too different. Well being different is what makes diversity beautiful. We shouldn’t strive to look like everyone else.
I will conclude here, I don’t want to get too deep because then this post will end up a page long. So overall “Good Hair” was interesting and entertaining at best, but not much of the learning experience I had expected it to be.
Peace, Wiggy Wack ♥