Good Hair Film Analysis

Superior Essays
In todays society the media constantly shows and glamorizes the hair of other races outside of African Americans. The term “good hair” is often associated with straight, long and silky hair types. Instead African American women hair is associated with terms like thick, kinky and nappy. These aren’t just terms anymore that are used freely instead, they’ve become very stereotypical and judgmental to the black race. This puts pressure on African American women to feel doubtful of their natural hair, so much that black women use chemicals to make their hair silky straight, which ultimately result in damaged hair. This has become such a controversial issue that the “Natural Hair Movement” has started all over social media. Not only does the media …show more content…
In reality, all hair is good hair despite your race and a person’s hair does not particularly define them, but stereotypes have forced even African Americans to think otherwise, along with other races.

In the film “Good Hair” produced by Chris Rock he explores the term “good hair” in African American culture, in the form of comedy and a documentary. While visiting multiple hair shows, hair salons and interviewing female and male African American celebrities he learns all about Black hair culture. The film was initially created because his daughter asked him why she didn’t have “good hair”. So this has not only affected black women, it’s something that has taken a toll on black children also, by making them question their appearance. Many of the black women explained how their hair appearance was unacceptable if it wasn’t “relaxed” hair, which is a chemical treatment that straightens hair. They referred to this as a perm or “creamy crack,” because of how addicted they had become to it, even though it damaged their hair. Chris Rock personally calls the
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I’ve never came across anything positive that was stereotypically related to black people and the phrase “good hair.” The most common stereotypes about Black hair is normally in reference to it being nappy, ugly, kinky, bad hair or thick. While exploring stereotypes of black hair I cam across the “I am OTHER” program, which according to it’s founder, Pharrell Williams “is a cultural movement dedicated to thinkers, innovators and outcasts.” They’re a program that focus on exploring a person’s individuality and they had interviewer, Ryan Hall head out into the streets to catch people off guard to see what people of all races stereotypical thought about “good hair.” The most shocking thing was to see how the majority of the African American people in the video shamed and degraded their own hair because it wasn’t “silky and smooth” and then to also see how most of the people only associated “good hair” with every other race except African American. One black woman that was interviewed by Ryan Hall describes the world as “being programed to see white people as more beautiful, and white people being associate with silky and straight hair.” Stereotypes about black hair can leave some African Americans feeling insecure and doubtful of themselves, while constantly seeking approval from society. It’s a constant battle because Black people are the only ones that

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