Yeah, I understand that’s what they are saying in the movie. I’m just saying that, like the posters in this thread seem to also experience, most of my black friends get their hair done in somebody’s house for like, $100. I don’t know a single black girl who goes to a salon and pays $1000. White girls, yes; black girls, no. Obviously it happens, I’m just saying that isn’t my experience, is all.
I watched this and was absolutely amazed.
And the competition at the end was one of the most bizzare things I have ever seen. I realize it was highly edited to fit in the time, But I couldn’t figure out if it was a hairdressing competition with no hairdressing, a stripper show without actually stripping, a dance show with no dancing, or a talent show with no talent. I just had absolutely no idea what was supposed to be going on. And Rock seemed really pissed about the extra people who weren’t on stage. Nobody else seemed to care that much, but he really had his nuts twisted up about it.
I’ve never asked, to be honest. It never occurred to me. Being Hispanic, we have other hangups and quirks. All I can say is that, unless the movie was exaggerating, this is more prevalent than you seem to think.
(Of course, maybe most black women go the relaxer route, which would be do-able at a friends house and I’m sure MUCH cheaper)
-XT
Most black women I know DO go to the salon, but the salon doesn’t cost anywhere near one thousand damn dollars. I’ve never known women to pay that much to get their hair done. I just got my relaxer retouched a week ago. $100.
Movie review forthcoming, Zing!
But you still are talking about individual styles. Braids and cornrows may be considered too “out there” for some businessness, just like rasta dreads. (And it’s not like a white person would be able to get away these ‘dos either, just sayin’.) But consider that these straight-hairstyles–all relaxed hair–would not exactly be accepted by Corporate America, either. The more creative you get with your hair, the more difficult its is going to be to conform.
Neither this, this, or this kind of hairstyle strike me as anything worth being afraid of in terms of getting a job. That’s all I’m really saying. When I hear women say they perm their hair to keep their jobs or whatever, I really have to wonder about their assumptions.
But the styles you picked out are no more conservative than something like this. Actually, those styles seem more unorthodox and creative to me.
I guess I don’t get why they seem all that creative. It’s nothing but curly hair, worn short enough that it looks conservative. Essentially it’s just their hair as it grows out of their head, with a little manipulation.
True, the braids in those pics aren’t all that creative, either. That said, what makes braids a “natural” hairstyle anyway? Most people it seems straighten their hair before putting in braids, plus the extensions 9 times out of 10 are straight. So I don’t understand why policies against certain hairstyles like braids is evidence that natural black hair carries a heavy stigma in the workplace.
It’s funny how I didn’t even mention morbid obesity, but you went there anyway. Further, I never suggested that Size 10 was morbid obesity, so I’m not sure why you feel the need to point that out.
I guess the point is that there a multitude of good reasons to go on a diet, in addition to the obvious superficial reason. The same just doesn’t hold true for straightening your hair. To me, a better analogy would be certain elective plastic surgery procedures, say breast augmentation or hair plugs, for example.
Do I find the expense and risks taken for a huge rack silly? Why, yes I do (well, I mostly find it sad).* So, I can understand why someone would characterize the pain and expense associated with hair straightening and weaves as portrayed in the documentary as silly. It’s a big price to pay for a strictly superficial reason.
- Admittedly, I might be biased, seeing as how I’m already naturally well-endowed. There have been times in my life, though, that I wished I had the problem of which these women all endeavor to rid themselves.
First of all, Al Sharpton: The Dalia Lama of Relaxers. LMBAO.
Moving right along, my response to was “Meh.” Like all films that brand themselves as documentaries, it should be evaluated by its worth as a movie that I liked watching, and how accurately it documented its subject.
Movie evaluation: B+
At times I found myself asking, “What is his point?” He started off with an anecdote about his daughter crying about her lack of good hair. This opening seems as though it would lay foundation for a premise of a film about black women’s hair with regard to their self-esteem, but it diverged quite a bit from that. Was this about how unsafe black women’s beauty regimens are? About how misguided the value placed on hair is? Especially among black women? Was it about the industry exploiting black women’s hair issues? All of these? Some of these? It seems he was attempting at a comprehensive look at the world of black women’s hair, but it ended up seeming scattered and unfocused. No less, I enjoyed watching it. I found Rock funny at times, and even as a black woman, I find Southern hair shows to be a trip.
Documentary cred: C-
It is true, that something in the area of 100% of every black woman you have ever met has had a relaxer in her hair at some point. The percentage that are relaxing their hair now, of course, is lower, but it is not misleading at all to say that essentially every black woman has done this. It’s also accurate to say that has been a long-held position among black Americans, as a group, that the less kinky the hair, the better. “Good hair” isn’t a term invented for the movie. Ask any black person what “good hair” means, and while it may vary from person to person, we all know what we think most other black people mean by the phrase. So in those areas, I think he gave a fair review and assessment of what goes on, hair-wise, with average black folks.
But then he exploited his credibility a bit, by harping too much on how dangerous the chemicals are, and suggesting that everyday women are buying $1,000 weaves. Negro, please. When I was watching the obscenely-expensive hair weave scene, I was thinking, “Yeah, you’re talking to Pepa, and other rich people who can afford that crap, but most people don’t do that.” Then he included the scene in that crappy shop where the shopkeeper stated ordinary women, like you and yours truly, do that, which is total bullshit. He included that in the film, with no qualifiers, as if that is standard practice. Not at all. Period. And that school teacher with the $1,000 blonde weave? That shit was ugly, dude. But enough about how crappy I found her hair to be.
Also,who gives a shit about the chemicals? It took the coloring off a soda can in under an hour. So? It didn’t disintegrate until after four hours. Who is soaking their hair in relaxer for hours on end? You leave relaxer in your hair for 20 minutes --tops!-- every six weeks. How is that any worse than standard bleaching regimens?
I liked the movie, but my biggest gripe is he did not separate actual, commonplace issues from the extremes. Sure, in my experiences, it’s true that most black women straighten their hair, and many think their hair looks better straight than not, but the film made it seem as though everyone he interviewed, and all the footage he included was typical stuff. Relaxers on small children are very uncommon, most women spend $50-$150 getting their hair done, most do not get crabby if your hand gets anywhere near their hair, most do not get bald spots from perms, I’ve never even been to a hair show, and nobody’s paying for a used weave. I don’t care if it’s from India, or has been on Angela Bassett.
But yeah, about half the black women I know won’t go in a pool. Them’s tricks.
That’s a good commentary, MOL. Like I said before, I enjoyed the film but I think he made the whole thing about “good hair” to be more of an obsession than it actually is.
It wouldn’t have hurt the film’s credibility if he had interviewed some academic-types so the audience could have at least learned about the historical background about the subject. Instead we get Raven Simone and Salt n Peppa. He could have at least interviewed some regular sistas on the street, from a variety walks of life. Instead he made celebrities and industry insiders the experts and spokespeople. That was quite neglectful of him.
Upon thinking about it more, he made it all out to be a neurosis of black women, something created in a vacuum, with black men being the ultimate victims. I don’t know about the rest of the black women in this thread, but growing up, it was black boys who made fun of my “nappy” hair moreso than the black girls, who were always quick to say it was pretty (if I would just comb it :)). He didn’t mention THAT reality. If those guys in the barber shop don’t like paying for weaves, then they should stop going out with women with unbeweavable hair. Point blank. But did Rock ask them if they would date a woman with natural (unrelaxed, unweaved) hair? Of course not. He already knows the answer, and he didn’t want that answer to ruin the theme of his film.
So now I don’t like the movie as much as I thought I did. 
The sad thing is that in my neighborhood a few years ago there was a crackdown on these local… well, not “mom and pop” but “mom and daughter” businesses. They were getting shut down on a variety of pretexts that, when you sorted through all of it, came down to “we don’t want these sorts of catering to poor black people businesses around here”. Which was a freakin’ shame because they were helping some talented people get by in the world. Yes, there were a few bad shops with unqualified people working with dangerous chemicals but most were doing hairstyles that didn’t involve relaxers, dyes, or other chemicals, just braiding and the like, and doing some very fine work.
Yes, I’m sure there are some impoverished women out there spending amounts others would find inappropriate on grooming (not just hair around here, but also nails) but I know a lot of black women who opt for natural hair and cut back on some fancy things for them for the benefit of their children. Their kids might get something special in the way of hair treatment for a birthday or graduation, but not all the time.
You just can’t capture the true range of variation in 90 minutes or 2 hours of video.
I may only be a white woman myself, and thus can’t have the visceral insider view, but I agree this seems to another form of stereotyping just based on my own observations (I happen to live in a city 85% black, which does give me some opportunity to make observations)
Also, none of this seems to explain why there are black men heavily into relaxing, cornrows, and other such things these days. I rather doubt the average young man around here with a relax or braids wants to “look like a white woman”.
50% of the black women you know will go in a pool?? Wow. I would say about 15% of the black women I know are willing to go in. And by ‘go in’ they mean ‘up to my neck’.
Thanks for the review. Enjoyed it.
I don’t normally go polling my acquaintances about their hair care. Actually, I don’t even ask my best friend or sisters. So maybe I’m just ignorant. But the only black woman I know who gets a weave regularly including maintenance is one who wound up with permanent bald spots after cancer treatment and feels it’s important to get a professional treatment so as to hide that. Which she does for HER preference, as she thinks she looks better with hair than without. But it’s not extravagant, and in fact she goes to a place that specializes in dealing with baldness and not a typical salon. Didn’t ask how much she paid for it, but damn it looked good on her.
Other than that, the only women I’m aware of with weaves (other than ones who volunteer that information) are the ones with bad weaves. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about. And that includes women of all colors who get bad weaves/extensions.
I enjoyed it, and am glad I read (portions of) this thread first for a reality check.
I found it a pretty entertaining in the same way that child pageant documentaries are interesting: “Really? This is a thing?” The Hair Battle Royale stuff in particular was completely OTT.
I didn’t really go into it expecting a rock (heh) solid documentary, so I can forgive the hysterical “OMG, chemicals!” stuff and the tut-tutting about how businesses who cater (in part) to african americans’ needs aren’t predominately black-owned.
Huh. Maybe this explains things at work for me, too. I recently moved to a primarily latino region of the country, and women at work are always playing with my hair. It’s not naturally red, and I always say it’s NOT naturally red, but they keep playing with it. 