Make no mistake about it: whether you swing it, shave it, spike it, or shag it, hair is and always has been an essential fashion commodity. Male, female, rich, poor, black, white: hair is all about how you work it. And if you have “good hair,” all the better. But what is “good hair” anyway? Something you style? Or do you have to be born with it? That’s the question which sparked Chris Rock to embark on a documented journey, when, much to his surprise, his five-year-old daughter questioned why she had “bad hair.”   

Good Hair, produced, written, and narrated by Chris Rock, chronicles his enlightening and hysterical journey across America in which he explored the lengths that women—particularly black women—will go to get their hair on, even if there’s some danger involved. Mixed in with an eye-popping hair show; a black-market romp through India; an exposé on hair relaxers; and curious celebrity interviews with Nia Long, Ice-T, Raven-Symoné, Salt-n-Pepa, and Eve, Good Hair touches a topic which all can relate to: the cost of conformity in a world filled with difference. We sat down with Chris Rock and Nia Long to talk about the power and politics of hair. L.A. Collins

L.A. COLLINS Weaves. Relaxers. Black hair shows. Not exactly mainstream topics, but a totally accessible documentary. Was this a hard thing to fund, or did studio folk see the light immediately?
CHRIS ROCK No-o-o-o. [Smiles] It was a hard thing, a hard, hard thing. I’ve been trying to make this movie for years. And you know, if you’d bring it up to [industry] people, they’d try to change the subject—hand you a cop script, “Heyyy [do this instead]!!” … [Imitating an exec] “Bust up an ecstasy ring, come on!” Actually when we started doing this, the research was done on my money. I put it on my Discovery card. Then HBO saw I was serious, and they kind of stepped in.
LC Ultimately, who do you think is your target audience?
CR Like anything I do, it’s geared towards everybody; but starts with a pretty black sensibility. But there’s stuff in there that [even] black people don’t know about. Did you know that relaxer could eat through a Coke can?
NIA LONG It’s kind of like we [people of color] want to see the images up on screen that we can relate to. It’s just like a regular film, we want to go see movies that we can say, “Oh my God, I know that feeling!”
LC Nia, you’ve sported many styles over the course of your career. Do you find you’ve had different reactions from casting agents, or that you moved through your career more smoothly when your hair was straighter or longer?
NL Not really. But I just realized when we were at the [Good Hair] L.A. premiere, and we all walked on the carpet, there were probably eight prominent black actresses, all around the same age, and everybody had the same hair! And I immediately took my weave out the next day. I was like, This is ridiculous! Because clearly there’s some sort of message that we’re all getting that’s subconscious. And I was like, You know wha-a-a-ht?!? Excuse my language, fuck it. And then when Chris first saw me he said, “My-y-y-y, you look like …“
CR Your beauty is original now! Before, your beauty was like Starbucks.
NL [Laughs] Yes. That was the joke. That was a good one!
CR Hey, it’s a good coffee, but it’s everywhere.

LC Now you’re wearing a ‘short do’ that looks so great on you! How did you have the confidence to just go there and cut it?
NL My mother. My mom is super strong. My mother has tattoos, like, on her face and on her neck. She’s got dreads and she’s a hippie. And she does not care what anyone thinks of her. When she walks into the room she owns it. But she’s also very sweet. It’s not like a rebellion thing, it's who she is. Our style is totally different; but she’s given me a true appreciation for black women, black beauty, black culture.
LC Why are black women so into weaves? Is it sexual politics, trying to get ahead in their profession, a need conformity?
CR I remember when I was putting crap in my hair, it seemed like, “Oh I’m famous, so this is what you’re supposed to do?” You know, before the Obamas, the Jacksons were the first family. So it was like, whatever the Jacksons have, we’re supposed to have.     
NL I think in Hollywood, actresses have a pressure to look a certain way. And when you get on set, there’s usually a white stylist in the trailer, and she’s not going to know what to do with your hair. She’s not trained to do natural hair, she knows nothing about a pressing comb. Very few do. Though it’s getting easier and easier to have your own team and people there, who know how to cater to your needs, but it’s definitely like, if you have a shower scene in a movie, and you have a pressing curl, and the next scene you’re supposed to be running in the park with your hair flying in the wind–
LC Uh-oh!
NL [Laughing] You’re gonna have some problems! And production’s gonna be pissed because it’s going to take an hour and a half to make that switch-over. That’s part of it. But you’re right, we do have to look at whether we’re trying to conform or deny our natural beauty. You have to ask yourself that question. And if you say, "No, I just like my hair like this, I wanna wear a weave, or long hair, then I think, it’s absolutely fine, it’s a fashion choice.
LC Chris, you traveled to India, the human hair, weave-supply capital of the world. Was the Indian hair-trafficking network that you discovered especially dangerous or scary?
CR [Pensively] It’s weird, India, to be so poor of a country, it didn’t feel that dangerous. Maybe I’m just being naïve.
LC Well, you’re from Brooklyn…
CR Yeah, well, maybe that was it? [Laughs]

LC On that note Nia, you mentioned that when you wear weaves you sometimes wear Indian hair. By learning in this movie that there are so many women in India exploited for their hair, did you become concerned?
NL When I saw those scenes I was like, Wow. We don’t get that type of information. Here’s the history of this person’s hair. You know, you just get the bag of hair, and you’re just like, “Oh, I like this girl!” So to actually see what was culturally going on, it was mind-blowing… I felt bad. I felt a little guilty. I felt like, Wow, we’re doing this for vanity, and these women are doing it for a religious sacrifice. That’s just so extreme, you know.
LC From Eastern Hindu temples to the Atlanta hair battles, you covered such a wide scope. Were there scenes you loved that had to be sacrificed?
CR When it was started we had men too. It wasn’t just concentrated on women. It was about black people’s hair. But we found no one cared about men’s hair.  The only thing they cared about men is how they cared about women’s hair. So there’s a whole lotta guys on the cutting room floor. We filmed a lot of stuff on the Jheri. That was the hardest cut, taking the Jheri curl out.
LC Is that 'do still alive and well?
CR We actually, at one point, assembled a roundtable of men who still had Jheri curls. [Laughs]
NL Brave men. It’s like the black version of the mullet, you know.
CR And these guys, you know, you have to know where to go to get your Jheri curl. It’s like angel dust; it’s not sold everywhere anymore. [Laughs] You gotta know where to go to get it.
LC Any person you didn’t get to talk to that you really wanted to interview?
CR We really wanted Diana Ross. My mother would’ve loved that. She was the only person that we kinda made a second and third call to. But hey, you know, this is documentary: come in, talk to me for free? It’s like, she has things to do. She’s busy. There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to spend your time with me. It could’ve been the topic? [Smiles] It could’ve just been her schedule…
NL I can’t believe you’re playing it safe right now.
LC Mr. Rock, what, in your opinion, is good hair?
CR The same hairstyle doesn’t work for everybody, you know. Now all these black women are looking like Jane Fonda circa Barbarella, or Dyan Cannon. That’s what most black girls look like in L.A. I’m just saying whatever style works for you. I had the Jheri curl, and the Jheri curl didn’t work for me!
NL A little too drippy.
CR Yes, a little too drippy.
LC So really, what is good hair?
CR Whatever hair makes you happy is good hair.

Good Hair is now playing in theaters nationwide.

www.goodhairmovie.net

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