Comments on: To Chris Rock and Beyond: Reactions, Responses and Ruminations on ‘Good’ Hair

By: Kandis

Kandis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:57:37 +0000

Hair should definitely be downgraded in importance for us as Black women. We have other more important issues to tackle. I, personally love that part of being African, so no straightening for me.

By: C an-Can

C an-Can — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:06:14 +0000

I’ve enjoyed all these articles and angles. My two cents: there is no one type of Black hair in this country. Our hair comes in textures from nappy, kinky, curly, wavy, straight and combination, including coarse and fine. All women manipulate their hair. Weaves were not originally created for Black women. Which is more an image of self-hatred – straightening your own hair, or weaving someone else’s ahir into your head whether it is for a weave or locks or braids? What’s in your head and heart is more important than what’s on it. Sometimes, people’s hair reflects who they are. Other times it has nothing to do with who they are. I always taught my children and the children I worked with that there was no such thing as good hair or bad hair. There is clean hair and dirty hair, kinky hair and straight hair, curly hair and wavy hair, short hair and long hair and dozens of things in-between. Women to day can choose to rock their hair however they want to. I know people who’ve gone from locks back to straight and from straight to locks and from short fro to braids. It’s all possible. What’s in your head and heart and actions toward your sister beings is much more important, in 2009, than how you wear your hair.
Peace,

By: DR. Tabreena Walker

DR. Tabreena Walker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:05:10 +0000

As a professional woman I have struggled many years going back and forth between my natural hair and having “straight” hair. This time around i have been wearing my hair natural for over 4 years. I love everything about my natural kinky crown; however, there were many times where I wanted to have a “different look” so that I would be more accepted by my peers,my patients,and even by some friends. But I have come to an awakening into the knowledge that I AM beautiful in my natural state and that people must accept me for who I am on the inside and the energy that I give off.

In response to the Chris Rock movie, let’s say it was interesting and caused my girlfriends and I to have a long discussion about hair and skin tone amongst African Americans. However, I am disturbed at the fact that Chris Rock did not expand more on the beauty of natural hair. He did not show women sportin’ kinky twists, locks/dreds, afro puffs, or natural corn rows. While the movie stressed the perils and revenue associated with weaves and perms, Chris did not show the financial structure and creativity behind natural hair.

By: The Black Bot

The Black Bot — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:54:56 +0000

I agree with the first comment the most. The thing I disliked about this movie the most was that it protrayed black women as being “crazy.” Whites watch it and think we spend $1,000 on a weave to look white (as if anyone does this besides that person he interviewed). It really shows a bad image of us because Rock was too busy trying to make a joke of us for his white audience than to discuss why Black women do the things we do. A sister should have made this movie. I talked more about that here http://blackbot.blogspot.com/2009/10/chris-rock-is-not-in-black-womens-best.html

By: Yomi Owoyemi

Yomi Owoyemi — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:37:23 +0000

As a young man growing up in Lagos, I can still remember my mother and aunts going to get their hair weaved or braided on Fridays and Saturdays in preparation for Sunday service or other occasions. One of my duties then was to visit the lady who did my mom’s hair to find out when it was my mother’s turn to get her hair worked on.

I can still see the artistic work of this lady who did hair working without any pictures or designs. She was widely praised and sought after by the ladies. I still remember names given to some of her designs and how beautiful my mother, aunts and other ladies look with their hair dos. She never uses chemicals or heat on the hairs of her customers.

Then my sisters, this was in the fifties, started to do their hairs. Hot combs, grease, etc to straighten their hairs. Different from the Yoruba custom of hair weaving/braiding (no extensions or attachments). I assisted my sisters to set up hot coals before they started to “work on their hairs” It never occurred to me that they were rejecting our tradition with Western tradition of how African women ought to do their hairs.

Then hot combs were replaced by chemicals to soften the hairs. There were times when my sisters and some of their friends used too much chemicals that resulted in loss of hair or bald spots.

As I read the discussion on “Good hair”, as an African, my thoughts are on how African ladies too succumbed to the idea that the only good hair is straight hair.
It is sad to say that the notion of good hair has infected most Black women around the globe

Yomi Owoyemi

By: Anita Wills

Anita Wills — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:22:10 +0000

As far as hair goes, my sister and I were told that we had, “Good” hair, by our friends. It did not feel like good hair when my mother was pulling it to weave the plaits into it. It did not feel good when she was washing it in the kitchen sink, and then running a warm comb through it. I see beautiful faces, which is framed by hair regardless of it’s texture. I always yearned to look like someone else, desiring their bone structure, skin, eyes, or teeth. My brothers teased me endlessly when I was a skinny child, calling me no teeth, no bones. As I got older and my hips spread, I was teased and called, “Big” by my classmates. I always believed African American women were beautiful, especially the women in my family. They have the full lips that everyone wants, some have high cheek bones, others have slanted, or big eyes. Now that I am older I understand why I thought the sisters were beautiful, because (daah), they look like me. We have it all, light skin, dark skin, long hair, short hair, (whether straight or kinky). I no longer go to hair dressers and sit for hours seeking beauty. I find it deep in my soul, when I look in the mirror. I find it in the people around me (of all races), who love themselves. That is true beauty, loving ourselves. There is NO BAD hair!!

By: rick

rick — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:09:00 +0000

As a man I am finding it difficult to understand why women have let a movie limit your whole being( the black, strong, backbone, caregiving, leader, mother and father of the 2009 household, entrepeneur, 1st lady of the whitehouse, 1st ladies of society, and beautiful GOD fearing spirits) down to some damn hair! There has been alot (understatement ) that could make you think about this good hair thing but I am saying forget about the bad or good hair and embrcae the inner person of the head the hair grows on. We have come to far for this. TO everyone that wrote a comment that is offended I say to you 2 things. We can never go back and change the hands of time. Slavery and the fall outs of it will be a thing of our past and future. 2) DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THINGS YOU CAN CHANGE. DO NOT LET BEING OFFENDED DETER YOU FROM BEING A POSITIVE EXAMPLE IN YOUR VERBIAGE AND YOUR FOOTSTEPS…..WE ALL KNOW HOW POWERFUL WORDS AND THOUGHTS ARE….JUST LOOK AT THE DISCUSSION GOOD HAIR HAS CREATED. NOW SOMEBODY CALL CONDOLEZA RICE AND GET HER SOME OF THAT HAIR CRACK! (JUST JOKING BUT IM SAYING…..PEOPLE LIGHTEN UP ALREADY……….EVERY1HAVE A BLESSED DAY

By: Elizabeth Clardy

Elizabeth Clardy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:12:18 +0000

Thanks for the insight into this movie. All the differen perspectives were an eye opener for me. I have been natural for 17 years and embrace not using chemicals on my hair. It is easier for me to manage this way. I live abroad and rely on networks such as these to get insight.

By: JLV

JLV — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:08:33 +0000

My young adult daughters and I wear natural dreadlocks. I am product of my time (the 1960s and 1970s). Having just seen “Good Hair,” my disappointment lies more with my brothers and sisters, rather than with Chris Rock, or Koreans, or Indians, or the Bronner Brothers, or Revlon. There is no multi-billion dollar industry for natural hair care products; we are the ones feeding this monster. Yes, yes, yes, the historical context has created a great deal of internalized oppression and I am not BLAMING Black people for our historical belief in the goodness of straight hair. But, when do we break the cycle of oppression? Why is this 2009 (more than 40 years after the first Afro became popular) and we are still having this conversation? Why are we poisoning ourselves (physically and spiritually) in this way? I think Chris Rock is a genius for offering this critique in the way that he did and holding the mirror up to us in such a public way.

By: Belle

Belle — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:57:25 +0000

After Chris Rock stated that he did this movie as a response to his daughter asking why she didn’t have good hair, I thought for sure there would have been some sort of redeeming message. I thought there would have been an equal comparison to those who enjoyed straightening and weaves with those who preferred natural hair with the end result being “good hair” can be found in every texture and length. I thought wrong. The movie did nothing more than depict black women as self hating fools on a quest to assimilate into European standards of beauty. This was ashamed because he had a chance here to make a statement and all this movie did was convey that we don’t accept ourselves and no else does either. (His attempt to sell the black hair) I was really disappointed.

By: PJ

PJ — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:23:26 +0000

Thank you SO much for publishing these counter thoughts to “Good Hair”. I was going crazy thinking I was the only Black woman offended by the lack of perspective and analysis this movie offered on the subject. Personally, I feel this was made for a white audience as a kind of ‘all you wanted to know about Negro hair but were afraid to ask.’ Rock only seems to talk about the ‘what’ but ignores the ‘why’. As Black people we already knew the ‘what’ so one is left to wonder: What’s the point?

By: Cathy Broadus

Cathy Broadus — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:35:18 +0000

Talking about Black Hair is a very necessary conversation. Before I saw any type of hair straightening for black women as being somewhat less than authentic, I first saw it as bondage. When I was young beautiful sister with flowing locks, I desired to travel to far away lands. They don’t do the “press’n'curl in all of the 7 continents. Hair had to go!