Reviews

Review: Good Hair

Chris Rock will make your head itch to know more

By SHAULA CLARK | October 26, 2009

3.5 Stars

According to Chris Rock, this documentary directed by Jeff Stilson was born when his young daughter asked him: “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” Rock’s exploration of black hair takes him from the barbershops of Harlem to the human-hair trade in India to a stylist “battle royale” at the Bonner Bros.

International Hair Show, as he chats up the likes of Al Sharpton, Eve, Ice-T, and Maya Angelou. With his wide-eyed, genial demeanor, Rock is the ideal vessel for this documentary, gently cracking wise as he leads us through a staggering gantlet of costly and laborious salon treatments (turns out, the sodium hydroxide in hair relaxer can melt a Coke can), only to drop gut-wrenching bombs like “So, my nappy hair is not worth anything?”

Make what you will of Regina Kimbell’s lawsuit (which alleges that Rock ripped off her documentary My Nappy Roots) — Good Hair is a film that will make your head itch to know more.

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