There's an article in today's New York Times about Chris Rock's much anticipated new documentary, Good Hair, which explores black women's complex relationship with hair and all the historic, racial, economic, gendered, and of course comedic, connotations. It won the jury prize at Sundance. The trailer:
In the Times article, Ingrid Banks, an associate professor of black studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, breaks it down: "For black women, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you've got straight hair, you're pegged as selling out. If you don't straighten your hair," she said, "you're seen as not practicing appropriate grooming practices."
There is so much at stake here. Not only are black women subjected to and sometimes perpetuate a system that infuses their hair choices with all sorts of social and political implications, but there are major economic implications as well. The Times article reports that "Last year, sales of home relaxers totaled $45.6 million (excluding Wal-Mart), according to Mintel, a market research firm, a figure that has held steady in recent years."
Things aren't getting cheaper, but they may be getting more complicated:
Noliwe M. Rooks, the associate director of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton, had many conversations about what it meant when the hair of Sasha and Malia Obama was pressed straight. "Unlike earlier times," the conclusion wasn't "clearly she had sold out, or she's saying straight hair is better," Professor Rooks said. "There's a complexity to who we are now. There wasn't an easy answer to why."
Thanks to reader Rachel for the reminder.
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I saw this at Sundance and loved it. Definitely make make the effort to see it. However, some of the people who I saw it with didn't think that it explored the issues as much as it could have. I'd say the focus is definitely on humor but with a socially conscious edge.
I saw the trailer for this posted a few weeks ago here on Feministing and I am really excited to see this movie. I'm fascinated by the topic but try not to engage too much on it out of respect. I tried explaining the documentary to a friend of mine (who loves documentaries) and he was less than eager, but then I showed him the trailer and he decided he wanted to see it after all.
It probably won't come to our little village theater, but it's going on the Netflix queue.
Must. See. This. Movie.
I had no idea the problem was this serious. Raised in the 70s, I thought black women's hair had somehow become straighter (or that the afro or dreads were deliberately styled. I did not know the straight hair of today was probably a $5,000 weave of another human's hair imported from India, or a trip to the salon with a relaxant that can dissolve through a soda can.
lol
Your comment reminds of the days when I was in middle school and had to inform some white kids (who demanded, it was not a pleasant exchange) that black ppl did not need to wash their hair everyday, that we put oil IN our hair AND NO THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT DIRTY!
I was so frustrated. I mean, I knew that white ppl had to/should (according to tv) wash their hair every day, why were they so ignorant about my hair. I had to ask my mother why they didn't know and she told me "Because they don't have to"
I was 11 at the time.
I didn't get a perm/relaxer until I was 13 yrs old. Either my hair was braided or pressed (never got burned!). Being told I had "good hair" always made me so uncomfortable b/c it wasn't something that I did.
I have a perm/relaxer now (I am tender-headed & I love to swim) but I style my hair in so many various ways most ppl think I don't.
Never had a weave or tracks though.
Sometimes I am still amazed at people who don't know what black women go through with their hair. Like my freshman roommate who asked if locks where made with mud...or guys/white ppl who think our hair is just straight like that
You will need to forgive me living in rural Hawaii where according to 1990 US Census figures that I worked with in my previous government job, there were a grand total of 200 black people in my community, comparable to the number of Jewish people. I can think of only two black children I ever met (and they didn't live here) while growing up, and one black person in high school. (I also knew exactly one Jewish person.) In my five and a half years at university, I sometimes passed black athletes in the hall of my dormitory. I didn't actually sit down and speak to a black person until I was aged 24, on my way to Japan, where ironically, I met quite a few black people, and even worked with one. (I also met one more Jewish person while in Japan. And one non-practicing Muslim, the first Muslim I met.)
Back in Hawaii, I now know two black people, both of whom I work with in the hospital, and there is nothing particularly "black" about them. One is half Filipino, and appears to favor that side of his heritage.
Otherwise, everything I think I know about black people is what I read or hear.
And so I plead complete ignorance here:
Is "nappy" (in the terminology of the movie trailer above) the "natural" or default state of hair of African heritage people (like dark colored straight hair is assumed to be the default of most southeast Asians)? All the people I see with "straight" hair like Tyra Oprah or the Obama women, had to have it deliberately styled or straightened, or are wearing some sort of hairpiece?
Damn.
I'm currently reading a really interesting book dealing with women and their hair (I think it's called Rapunzel's Daughters or something to that effect), and I believe this was brought up there as well. It *is* a very complex issue, and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, if for no other reason than it will (hopefully) open up some dialogue in new places.
I'm glad Chris Rock made this doc. I hope it does well.
As a punk rock non-black kid growing up in Houston, I LOVED all of the cool original styles (not straightened or a weave -- I thought this was so boring!) the black kids at my grade schools came up with, and I appreciated how seemingly acceptable (in my neighborhood, anyway) everyone was toward black people with braids, charms/beads, and multicolored (though usually in traditional colors) hair. To me -- and a lot of other folks I grew up around -- it was a mark of personal style.
The embedded video wasn't working for me, nor was the video on YouTube. This is another link for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So&feature=related
i remember reading on Vegans of Color about the Cosmetics Database... check out the scariness of their relaxers page. The second most toxic relaxer they mention is called "Africa's Best Kid's Organics No-Lye Organic Conditioning Relaxer System with ScalpGuard"...
what's it guarding kids' scalps from? it sure as hell ain't chemo. also, consider that even the least toxic relaxer they surveyed has warnings about links to "Developmental/reproductive toxicity" and "other concerns."
getting folks to pay top dollar for toxic products... it's like the genocide con.
This topic is often discussed on the hair-related blogs I read - honeybrownsugar.com, curlynikki.com, highlytextured.com to name a few - and the one note that keeps coming up is "do we (African-Americans) do this to ourselves?" Rarely is a topic so politicized in the AA community as a woman's hair.
I've had "Good Hair" in my Netflix queue since I first heard about it months ago, I hope it comes to a local theater as well. Chris Rock has the ability to approach a sensitive topic with humor and ruthlessness.
lol
I had no idea one cannot run their fingers through a weave during sex!
I posted my take on this thoroughly mediocre article at PostBourgie.
http://wp.me/paisU-1VO
While I'm looking forward to the film, I really object to the framing of this story -- that black women have all these weird politics about their hair, and that they also have different opinions about how to style it. Crazy!
There's also no mention of the actual consequences faced by black women who choose to wear their hair in what some employers still call 'ethnic styles' (braids, twists, locs).
My local school district does not allow what they list as "cornrows" for boys or girls, nor are dreadlocks allowed. I assume twists would not be allowed either but they aren't specifically mentioned. Every year when I read the dress code it seems pretty obvious to me that they're trying to force black kids to conform their hair to white standards, even though the school board would probably claim that since no one can wear corn rows it's not discriminatory.
I actually like "nappy" (I'm not trying to offend, I just don't know any other adjective for it, hence the quotes) hair. I think it's pretty because it's natural.
But I'm apparently in the minority on this.
I like it too. In fact I had been straightening my hair since my pre-teens so I didn't even know how cool my real texture would be as an adult.
Then I moved abroad and I was like, "Holy crap! What will I do with my hair???!" So I was forced to stop getting my hair done professionally because I couldn't find anywhere to do my hair. Then I was pleasantly surprised at how cool my natural hair is and now I'm saving loads of money.
I'm really of the philosophy that "black is beautiful."
Aesthetically, hair frames the face, and I consider the contours, complexion, and features of the AA face to be absolutely lovely, so how the hair frames that is entirely up to the individual because it doesn't really need to draw attention away from imperfections. So there are very few black hairstyles that I'm not fond of. I love the natural look (Angela Davis), dreadlocks, twists, cornrows, braids, and you know what, if a black woman wants to process her hair or put in a weave that's ok too... she's beautiful either way. There are a few styles that I'll admit aren't my cup of tea (jheri curls, high top fade) but again, none of these things change the look of the face, so it's no big deal to me.
I actually noticed that when Obama's campaign really got underway, his daughters' hair was styled straight or styled straight and then curled (so it was still the more "caucasian" curl). However, if you looked at the pre-campaign photos of the family, the girls often had braids, and I haven't seen any straight-hair pictures. May be its just because they were more style-conscious during the campaign, or may be they had to make certain cultural compromises for the sake of the election. In any case, it always surprised me
I think I saw recently one of the Obama girls with cornrows. I guess now that we have a black president and the sky hasn't shattered they can go back to doing their hair however they like to.