My interest in this movie wasn't so much about the history and culture behind the hair of African-Americans, but more so with Chris Rock. The topic of the movie, while somewhat appealing, is a little dull. But Rock's humor and direction helped this move along at an amusing rate.According to Chris Rock, the idea for the documentary came about after his young daughter asked him, "How come I don't have good hair?" After that, Rock heads to find out what black people go through to style their hair, and more importantly, why they do it. Rock tackles the topics of identity, conformity, attitude and wealth when styling hair. His journey takes him to Atlanta, North Carolina and even India. The latter of which is where most of the world's human hair gets imported from. Rock interviewed several celebrities, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, Ice-T and Nia Long to see when they first started getting their hair styled and how they did it. But the core focus of Rock's documentary is the Bronner Bros. annual hair show in Atlanta. This event features a spectacular display of hair cutting that really needs to be seen to be believed.
Chris Rock is lucky he's a very funny man because without his often hysterical voiceovers, this documentary wouldn't be half the movie it is. That being said, the film chose to highlight certain scenes that perplexed me. They'd spend a lot more time than necessary discussing a certain topic. I thought they should've been out demonstrating what had been talked about, but that wasn't done often. The best parts of the movie involved either Dr. Maya Angelou being questioned about her hair or Rock's trip to India. While good and worthy of a recommendation, this documentary was far from great. Grade: B-
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