Good Hair is a 2009 American documentary comedy film produced by Chris Rock Productions and HBO Films, starring and narrated by comedian Chris Rock. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2009, Good Hair was released to select theaters in the United States by Roadside Attractions on October 9 of the same year, opening across the country on October 23. The film focuses on African American women s hair, including the styling industry surrounding it, the acceptable look of African American women s hair in society, and the effects of both upon African American culture. According to Rock, he was prompted to make the documentary after his 5-year old daughter Lola asked him, Daddy, how come I don t have good hair?

He also gets the male perspective, spending quite a bit of screen time on the fact that black men often are expected to fund their significant others hair-care needs that, in the case of extensions, can easily run up to $1,000. Corralling a gallery of ordinary Joes at, where else, a barbershop, he elicits hilarious observations about the topic as well as the intricacies of having sex with women who bristle at having their hair touched. More seriously, he examines such issues as the harsh, destructive chemicals widely used in hair relaxers, the dangers of which are made devastatingly clear in a demonstration by a chemist in which a soda can is essentially dissolved after soaking in the solution for a few minutes.
The documentary also includes excursions to India, where devout Hindu women shave their heads only to have their hair turned into an expensive commodity for well-heeled American women; and Atlanta, home of the Dudley hair-care product empire and the Bronner Brothers International Hair Show, the latter featuring a wildly entertaining hairstyling contest that seems like something out of a Christopher Guest comedy.

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