Hirsute HooplaBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"Even a single hair casts its shadow." Publius Syrus (42 B. C.)
I have a close friend, an attractive black woman, whose hair I would not dare touch, not because she has forbidden me, but because the air about her and her friends seems to reverberate with the idea that we can mess with their music and clothes, but never their hair. Chris Rock's light-hearted documentary, Good Hair, explores black culture's love-affair with hair as he travels to interview devotees of fashion about the relationship of black women to the worship of straight, not nappy hair.
As a good documentary should, Rock's journey exposes the enormous commitment black women make to their hair: In that heavyweight commercial world of hair products, blacks consume at least 70 percent, and of the myriad hair styles, an almost equal percentage use hair extension. They have a serious commitment to changing their hair from curly to straight, a fair nod to their non-black friends who have been mining black music and athletics for so long.
Chris Rock has never been a favorite film performer for me because of his inclination to shout his parts through. Here he is understated although his comments and questions are decidedly second rate. But then Rev. Al Sharpton, he of excess relaxer and self-serving verbiage, weighs in on female excess while he sits as a testimony to the same in many categories. Rock looks good next to the Reverend.
Atlanta's Bronner Brothers Hair Show provides delightfully hokey entertainment as the hair professionals roll out the show biz shtick to win the annual prizes. Just like this documentary, it is more about our ability to worship pop culture than it is about the stuff on the top of our heads.
Good Hair is a good documentary, lightly exposing the vanity of all colors. Come to think of it, although my beautiful black friend with a resemblance to Halley Berry spends little time fretting about her hair, I would never touch it.
That I learned for sure from Good Hair.
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com