The main narrative arc for the film surrounded a Black Hair show in Atlanta, Georgia, where millions is spent every year by mainly black women on products such as relaxer and weaves. The pinnacle of the show is the highly elaborate hair cutting competition where hair dressers compete to win a $20,000 prize. Intersecting this narrative were interviews with black stars such as Nia Long, Ice T and Reverend Al Sharpton. Rock also travelled to meet the owners of some of the hair product companies and to India to investigate precisely where 'human hair' weaves come from.
Points I think need considering:
- There was little exploration of why women feel the need to go through all this pain and pay all this money to look this way? Is it a form of internalised racism? Is it patriarchal issue?
- What about women in general being victims of the beauty industry? Aren't wearing heels, make-up, having cosmetic surgery all part of the same problem - women self harming in effect, mainly to appeal to men and compete with other women. Why do men not need to compete in the same way?
- The men were portrayed sympathetically as victims of this culture - having to pay for it, wait for women to have it done, not able to touch the weave etc. Why were the men not asked if they would be willing to date women with more natural hair? Are most of these women not doing it for their benefit in the first place?
- Also, no mention was made of what the people in India working to package the human hair were being paid. Are they victims or benefactors of the industry?
