Good Hair and a Q&A with Chris Rock

Good Hair from Ronke Adeyemi on Vimeo.
I cannot tell you how long I have been dying to see this film. Well ever since I saw the trailer in September while I was in New York about to see The September Issue. I missed a screening a few months back so I was really excited when I heard that The Ritzy were hosting a screening as well as a Q&A with Mr Chris Rock. I have no idea what has gotten into The Ritzy (they have really stepped up their events with the premiere of Why Did I Get Married last Friday and having Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson on the red carpet) but I like it. Anyway despite having a complete castrophe on my route into London from Kent (a broke down train, a rerouted one and problems on the normally reliable Victoria Line) I made it to the screening in the nick of time.

Good Hair is a documentary comedy film made by Chris Rock which he was inspired to make after a rather disturbing conversation with one of his daughters about her hair. Questioned by his five year old, Lala about why she did not have 'good hair' prompted Rock into delving into the deep rooted issues that Black women have about their hair and boy did he get a real eye opener. He found out that the Black hair industry is worth $6 billion yet Black people have very little stake in the industry apart from as consumers. He travelled to Atlanta, home to many a Black person as well as numerous hair salons, he went to LA which is the capital of the weave and also to India to see where the weaves actually come from.  He also investigated the situation with the creamy crack aka the relaxer which is used by the majority of Black women. I found this aspect of the film very interesting as it really sort of represented the legacy of African American history. The whole perception that the straighter your hair is then the more acceptable you will be in white society especially in the workplace. Hence the outcry in 2007 over the insulting comments that a former journalist at US Glamour made during a presentation on the do's and don'ts of corporate fashion. What was really scaring was the science behind the chemical relaxer and exactly what it did to your scalp. Wooo! Talk about excruciating.

Good Hair showed Chris going into a variety of salons and spoke to numerous of Black women and girls about their hair. From grown women who have been relaxing their manes, to those who don a weave and also to very young girls - one as young as six - whose mothers took them to their hairdressers to get their hair relaxed. In the space of an hour and a half, The documentary covers a heck of a lot but also keeps us laughing with Rock's hilarious commentary. He takes what is a really serious issues and keeps it really educational and entertaining at the same time. As well as Black hair officonados the film features Nia Long, Salt n Pepa, Eve, Raven Symone, Ice T, Meagan Good, Lauren London, Kerry Washington, Reverend Al Sharpton, Maya Angelou and KRS One. The film was definitely worth the wait; it was funny and at times quite sad but moreover very informative and extremely thought provoking. It really made you sit down and think about how much effect the images of women in the media effect young Black women. How destructive those images can be if they are one sided and show one example of beauty. Afterwards we were treated to a Q&A with Chris where he entertained several questions about the film. I can confirm that he is as slight in real life as he appears on the screen but is just as funny.

Good Hair will be released in the UK in June.

Mean, Meaner, Meanest

"Women would run the world if they did not hate each other." Interesting words uttered from the mouth of Chris Rock but also very true. Where ever you look examples of girl on girl hate is prevalent; books, TV, film and music, we are all party to seeing young women treating each other badly. These are issues that author and educator, Rosalind Wiseman tackies in her book, Queen Bees and Wannabees where she looks at ways of handling aggressive girl behaviour. She also goes into the secret world of school cliques and breaks them down into six categories: Queen Bees, Wannabes, Messengers, Bankers, Targets, Torn Bystanders. Queen Bees and Wannabees is an important book because not only does it give us an insight into the socio-political inside of girl world it is also the inspiration for Mean Girls. Defined as a combination of Heathers meets Clueless, Mean Girls was released in 2004 to critical acclaim and is now regarded as one of the best teen films of all time. The success of the movie might have had something to do with the hotness of Lindsay Lohan at the time but Mean Girls is truly all about Tina Fey and her brilliant script writing skills.


Mean Girls was Tina's debut as a writer and actor in a feature film and I supposed you can say that it was also a semi bio project as the movie touched on a lot of things that she experienced at high school. The cast also includes performers from Saturday Night Live of which Tina is an integral part of. This teen dramady is the story of Cady Heron played by Lindsay Lohan, a teenager who moves to a new school after having an idyllic upbringing in an African country. New to the social rules of high school she finds herself an object of interest by The Plastics ie the Mean Girls who run the school. The Plastics are headed by Regina George played by Rachel McAdams and they take her under their wing and she finds herself escalating into the school popularity ranks. However, unknown to The Plastics, Cady is secretly plotting with social outcasts Janis Ian played by Lizzy Caplan and Damien played by Daniel Franzese to bring down Regina. As she becomes immersed in life as a Plastic Cady usurps Regina to become the new Queen Bee but pretty soon she gets addicted to her new found power and starts to neglect her real friends.


The character of the Queen Bee runs similar in a lot of films and TV shows from Heather Chandler in Heathers, Taylor Vaughan in She's All That and Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Rosalind Wiseman defines the the Queen Bee below:

"She holds the combination of charisma, strong will, looks, money, force and manipulation. She is the centre of the group not because she is well liked but because of the fear that she holds over the group. She sets all the rules and changes them to suit her own purposes."

As enjoyable and funny as Mean Girls is, the film also has a steely edge that is a tad bit disturbing. As Tina Fey describes, the film shows how girls know how to mess with each other. Talk about art imitating life.