There's an old joke that goes like this: When Puerto Rico-bound airline pilots want to know how close they are getting to the island, they ask flight attendants to walk through the aisle and check the women's hair. When the frizz factor reaches island levels, it's time to lower the landing gear. Escaping tropical humidity was not why I decided to move to the states as a college-age teenager, but it would have been as good a reason as any; imagine a bad-hair day every day.
Those nightmarish memories all came rushing back as I watched an early screening of "Good Hair," Chris Rock's documentary about African-American women and their hair. (It opens nationwide on Friday.) Without giving too much away, the film hopscotches from interviews with celebrities who can afford $5,000 hair extensions, to a trip to India to find out where all those extensions come from, to a styling competition, to more interviews with average women in hair salons who refer to hair relaxer as "creamy crack" – once you've straightened your hair, you never go back.
Because it's Chris Rock, the film has many hilarious moments -- and some cringe-inducing ones too -- that only a comedian as gifted as he could get away with. And because Rock said his interest in the subject was prompted by an innocent question from one of his daughters – "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" – the mostly female audience cut him some slack.
But, oh, wow, the nerve of a man to take on such a deep, sensitive female subject. His basic premise is that what's regarded as good hair is white people's hair and we silly nonwhite girls should stop it and care more about what's in our heads, not outside of them. (To his credit, Rock included straightened male hair like Al Sharpton's.)
I can't speak for black women, but I don't need to: After a screening there was a panel and the black panelists had plenty to say. "A mockumentary," Angela Bronner Helm, a senior editor with the AOL site "Black Voices," called it. She said she felt the laughter was aimed at her.
Isn't the concept of good hair evolving to mean simply "healthy hair"? New York Times writer Catherine Saint Louis asked. She pointed to the Obama girls and how they wear their hair any way they like – straight, in twists -- according to their mood, like any young girl.
Some panelists wondered why women dying their hair blond was not politically charged. Well, for fair-skinned Latinas it is. Angelique Serrano, beauty and fashion director for Latina magazine, said that when she got blond highlights on her straight hair, she was questioned by several people who thought it was a way to be "less
Latina
."
But don't plenty of Caucasian girls also long for blond hair, for "good" hair?
"First we have to free ourselves" of the political baggage, advised Mikki Taylor, cover director at Essence magazine. "Don't own that."
Look, I'm sure you can find all sorts of pathology behind women's hair styles -- Sarah Palin's all-American beehive, for instance -- but sometimes hair is just hair. As far as I'm concerned it is another accessory, although a critical one since it frames your face. You wear it as a form of self-expression or the way you feel you look your best, which unfortunately is susceptible to fads, as all our yearbook photos (and Betty's Fellini-esque Italian updo in "Mad Men" last Sunday) prove.
In my case, I was born with wavy hair so prone to frizz that I look forward to 20-degree weather just because it provides some relief. In the summer, though, there are many times I wish I could just iron it right there on the ironing board along with the blouse. These days I just blow-dry it and hope for the best.
But in my teenage years, I did what I still see many women in my heavily Dominican Manhattan 'hood of
WashingtonHeights
do -- wrap their hair around a roller in a "dubi-dubi." Not sure where the name came from -- perhaps a play on Dippity-Do curl-holding styling gel, whose ads were incredibly popular in the '60s? -- but the dubi-dubi entails rolling some hair on a roller at the top of your head, brushing the rest of your hair tight around the roller and pinning it as you wrap it. You either go to sleep or walk around during the day looking like a sanitarium escapee. (The real pros can do a dubi-dubi without a roller and look slightly less crazed.) Either way, however, the hair must remain tightly pinned for a good five or six hours to get the straight-hair effect.
Straight, that is, until it rains, or you approach the
Caribbean
.
Are the efforts worth it? Yes, if they make you feel good. Why should any of it be a political statement? Or anyone else's business?
As a friend of mine told me when I complimented her on her new hair style and dared ask, "Is it yours?"
"You're damn right it is," she said. "I paid good money for it."
Michaele Salahi , the infamous White House state dinner crasher, is getting hair extensions Friday at the Roche Salon in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. The sighting of the striking blonde by another...
Chris Rock is the biggest recist of all. He always berates white people ini his comedy acts. This is just another paraniod racist rant against black people trying to look white. His psyche is so messed up, he cant enjoy the beauty of a woman without looking at her through race colored glasses.
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sandsnnydz
10:08AM Oct 6th 2009
a movie about "hair" hasn't this already been done?
how boring .... who in the right mind is going to pay good money to see a movie about HAIR???
further more who in their right mind gives a rats azz what Chris Rock has to say about ANYTHING!!
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allena
12:54PM Oct 6th 2009
Wow i Can't wait to see this movie all of my firends & family plan to see it as well. I'm not tryin to say that ppl that are outside of the black culture can never be understanding to what is going on inside it psychologically but I always find it funny when ppl want to call Chris Rock racist for making this movie. Reading these other comments I can almost tell these ppl obviously judge our culture from the outside & through their experiences with their 1 black friend who is diconnected with the black community as well. Black hair care is a 9Billion a year industry and we spen 3 times as much as every1 else in this country even though we only account for 15% of the population. If you have never seen a girl ridiculed for lookiing lke a tar colored slave simply because of her hair texture & actually had to whitness the look on her face. Or seen a black girl pining over a white friends hair is it possible you don;t know what the hell you are talking about? (No offence to the journalist covering the story of course)
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mamaafrika
1:49PM Oct 6th 2009
The movie probably will be funny, but when you see how crazy black women look in straight and blond hair, it is no laughing matter.
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Hello Lee-Lee
2:21PM Oct 6th 2009
Once again truth revealed finds hardened hearts to accept. Historically black women never had a problem with their luscious tresses or Nappy hair until European people came along during slavery and successfully destroy the concept. However, our beautiful hair still remains on display for all the world to see: Eygptian wall paintings, Greek mythos, Ethiopian biblical stories to name a few. Although, recognization of this fact is blatantly hidden from our eyes, some black women have not been asleep on this sore painful subject. I commend Mr Rock for his courage to deal with a well kept tragedy. Of course, it wont be for much longer those who know the truth and accept it for what it is will ring a mighty trumpet and bring back as to 'why' we as chosen people -God chosen- express this fact though our nappy tresses. No longer will we be ashamed. Amen Amen
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sparklspd
2:43PM Oct 6th 2009
You make an interesting anthropological point. Throughout history women and men have tried to change their appearance to meet the trend of the day. White women get perms to make their hair curly and go in tanning beds - which can cause CANCER. How does the fact that fair skinned women try to look darker fit with your belief that this all stems from Eoropeans trying to make black people seem white??
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loucardsfan
2:53PM Oct 6th 2009
Typical victim mentality. Lee Lee must be a liberal preacher. Blame white people for what you percieve as a wrong committed against your "people. How does that explain the attraction of black men to straight hair and white men to curly. Ever think it might be God's propensity for diversity?
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cloakndagger55
3:18PM Oct 6th 2009
At least Chris doesn't shave his head like EVERY BLACK MAN ON TV. The shaved head is just the black mans way of not having kinky hair, isn't it?
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Hello Lee-Lee
8:51PM Oct 6th 2009
Actually, religion has been a big hinderance for black people and continues to keep "the natives" in check for European domination. God doesn't not need religion or even myself to complete what is already taking place. The freedom and relief from the pressures of having to conform and try to be something you definetly are not! brings sanity. One awakens and realizes how crazy it is to look, act, and chemical change oneself into another. One day it may be Europeans who will try desparately to imitate blacks (I am not talking about hip hop). In that case wisdom would dictate that they accept who they really are and not rebel against the 'truth' however hurtful these new insights to reality may be. Which would include stealing someone history and inserting yourself as it own. Killing and murdering your fellow human being at the expense of so called progress. (You know those things)- Black women recieve the harshest slaps when it come to our hair; (it has historical roots in the slave trade) those negatives start at an early age with the pressing comb or perm. I am alway glad to see someone show courage to reveal this truth.