Good Hair News

Bad camerawork, no worse than the documentary norm these days, rough, shaky, often out of position, but the film is nevertheless an engrossing and entertaining investigation of the "problem" of African-American hair, the size of which problem may hitherto have eluded you.

While it is a "no-brainer" for "Girl's Night Out" this weekend, and is chock full of comedic moments, the making of "Good Hair" was an emotional journey for Chris Rock.

Chris Rock loves African-American women, but what is up with their hair? They straighten its natural texture with relaxer chemicals that can melt a soda can, spend thousands of dollars on weaves and extensions, and make hairstyling a spectator sport.

"Daddy," inquires the 5-year-old daughter of comedian Chris Rock at the outset of this delightful documentary, "why don't I have good hair?" "Video Vixen" Melyssa Ford is more blunt: "Good hair is white hair." Ford may think so , and many black women who spend beyond their means for weaves and chemical relaxers would seem to agree with her.

Good Hair is an hourlong documentary passing itself off as a 90-minute documentary.

"Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" It's this question that launches "Good Hair," Chris Rock's uproarious and enlightening documentary about the world of African-American women's hair.

IN Good Hair , his first but hopefully not last documentary, co-writer/producer Chris Rock has a marvelous timely subject all to himself.

Like most odysseys, Good Hair begins with a single question. "Daddy, why don't I have good hair?" the little girl asks of her celebrity pop.

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.

Chris Rock's 'Good Hair' is a funny film about a touchy subject. A touchy subject that one is, apparently, not supposed to touch.

Morgan Spurlock, look lively. Sacha Baron Cohen, watch your back. Chris Rock's bright, wisecracking expose Good Hair is the mane event.

Like the titular follicles this documentary surveys, "Good Hair" is a bit all over the place.

The subject of follicle prejudice in the African-American community is a fascinating one that's been rather shortchanged in mainstream entertainment; the last time I remember it really boiling to the surface is in the brutally honest "Straight and Nappy" production number in Spike Lee's 1988 effort School Daze .

Chris Rock watches a young girl getting her hair relaxed in "Good Hair." In his new film, "Good Hair," Chris Rock approaches the subject of Black women's hair - " all at once - " like a man, like a novice, like a voyeur, and like a comedian in his investigation of hair weaves and hair straightening relaxers.

Is Chris Rock the next Michael Moore? That question was on the tip of many critics' tongues when the Rock-fronted documentary Good Hair premiered at last month's Toronto International Film Festival, though the better question may be whether the comedian has any clout left in the film industry at all.

Think "good" hair is a niche obsession? Chris Rock and director Jeff Stilson extend those extensions until they stretch from Atlanta to India, making white businessmen and Asian entrepreneurs rich, and black women too broke to pay bills.

When one of Chris Rock 's young daughters asked, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?," the comedian decided to investigate the complex, often troubled relationship between African-American women and their crowning glory.

Chris Rock is interviewed during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Ont., Monday, Sept.

Chris Rock's "Good Hair" is one of those rare documentaries that works on two seemingly incongruous levels at once: It's both social commentary and pure delight.

'Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?'

That's the question that propels comedian Chris Rock through 'Good Hair,' a hilarious documentary that, like all great comedies, is shot through with equal parts humor and heartbreak.

The concept of 'good hair' -- which, simply put, has come to mean 'the straighter the better' in the African American community -- turns out to be as tangled as the most unruly tresses themselves. It's tied up as much with politics, economics and freighted history as with mere vanity and personal choice.