Chris Rock and Nia Long expose the truth about 'Good Hair'

Nia Long and Chris Rock

I get a lot of comments about my hair. "I love your hair!" "How’d it get so long?" "What’s your secret?" The truth is that my hair (which goes down to the middle of my back) is all real. Every single strand of it is growing out of my head naturally. I don’t wear weaves, extensions or wigs. I don’t chemically alter my hair. And yes, I’ve gotten some comments, particularly from other black people, that I have "good hair." So it’s no surprise that I was curious to see Chris Rock’s documentary film "Good Hair" about that same subject: how black people define "good hair" and how a business worth billions has grown from people’s pursuit of "good hair."

The movie is hilarious and touching, and people of any race can enjoy it or understand it. If you’ve ever had a "bad hair day," admired someone else’s hair or styled your hair a certain way to make a statement about yourself, then you can find something to relate to in "Good Hair." Rock is one my favorite comedians, so I might be a little bit biased in saying how much I liked "Good Hair," whose festival run included premieres at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. But Rock (who produced and co-wrote "Good Hair," in addition to appearing in the movie and narrating it) skillfully found the right mix of celebrities and "regular people," as they told their personal stories about how hair, self-esteem and perceived attractiveness are often inseparable — and can be a hot-button issue if race is part of the equation.

It’s no secret that hair weaves and hair extensions are popular with many women (and quite a few men). But did you know that the majority of the hair used in weaves and extensions comes from women in India, and many of those women cut off all their hair as a religious-sacrifice ceremony called tonsuring? Or did you know that Koreans do more buying and selling of hair and hair-care products to black people than black people themselves? Those are just a few of the many facts exposed in "Good Hair." Being of Jamaican-Indian heritage, I came away from seeing the movie thinking, 1) "Because of good health and the luck of genetics, I glad that I don’t have to think about wearing weaves and all the time-consuming things that go along with maintaining them," and 2) "I wonder if any of my distant relatives in India is one those hair-sacrificing women whose mane is now parked on someone else’s head?" It’s a small world and stranger things have happened.

And thankfully, I have no desire to be an entertainer or a model, or I’d have to think about my hair even more that I’d want to do — and I’d have to put up with all sorts of uncomfortable situations, as "Good Hair" realistically confirms by interviewing several people in the entertainment business who have hair horror stories to tell. People tell me that I’m one of the most low-maintenance women they know. Plastic surgery and Botox? I’ve never had it and I don’t want it. Obsessing about weight gain? I’ve never been overweight, never been on a diet, never had an eating disorder, and I’ve never bothered to even own a scale. Putting on makeup? I do it only when I feel like it, and even then my philosophy is that if it takes more than 15 minutes, you’re not putting on makeup, you’re putting on a mask. But taking an hour or more to do your hair? OK, I get it. For me, it’s mainly because my hair is so long and it really does take about an hour to wash and blow dry it. (Believe me, I’ve had my share of bad hair days, especially if humidity gets a hold of my hair. The best way I can describe my worst hair day: Ever see Gilda Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna character on "Saturday Night Live"? Yeah.) So when I sat down with Rock and actress Nia Long (who appears in "Good Hair") at the "Good Hair" press junket in New York City, I had to find out some of the things that inquiring minds and over-processed scalps want to know.

Nia Long and Chris Rock at the New York City premiere of "Good Hair"

Who was the hardest person to get to be in this movie?

Long: [She says jokingly] I was definitely the hardest person!

Rock: I think Maya Angelou was, because she lives in the town where the Dudley [hair-care company in Greensboro, North Carolina] is. We knew we were going to be there, and our crack research team found out she lived in the same town. So getting her to agree was pretty hard. Once we got her, it was great.

What do you say to people who want to know who’s the audience for "Good Hair," especially when black people already know about weaves and hair relaxing?

Rock: Like anything I do, it’s geared toward everybody, but it starts with a pretty black sensibility? But there’s stuff in there that black people don’t know about. Did you know [the chemicals in] your relaxer could eat through a Coke can?

Long: It’s kind of like we want to see images on film that we can relate to, just like a regular film, a scripted piece. We want to go and see movies and images where we can say, "Oh my God! I know that feeling!"

Chris Rock (pictured in front row, at far left) in "Good Hair"

One of the things that’s pointed out in the film is how a lot of black women who have weaves don’t like non-hairdressers touching their hair. Did that surprise you at all when you made this movie?

Rock: It’s one of those things where we don’t even realize that we’re doing it. When you’ve gotten so used to not touching the hair … [He laughs.]

Long: I think black men are careful. They don’t just go right for [the hair]. They give you a look like, "Is it OK?"

Rock: They don’t know if [a weave] is there. Like I can tell you don’t have a weave. I can just tell that your hair would be fine to grab.

[Laughter]

But as a man, you just don’t do it. It’s like "True Blood," like a vampire. You wait until you’re invited in.

How was it filming in India?

Rock: To be in India, even though they’re so poor, it didn’t feel that dangerous. Maybe I’m just naïve.

Long: You’re from Brooklyn!

Rock: Maybe that was it. My guard is never down. But in India, I don’t know, there’s something about the people that’s relaxing. It didn’t get that crazy. One thing I noticed being in India, you don’t see any women walking around at night. They’re just off the streets because I guess it’s dangerous.

Chris Rock, Nia Long and "Good Hair" producer Nelson George at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah

Nia, you said in this movie that you sometimes wear weaves made with Indian hair. What did you think about the religious rituals of cutting off hair in India? And did it make you feel differently about wearing weaves?

Long: When I saw those things, I was like, "Wow!" Women don't get that type of information. "Oh, here’s the history of this person’s hair!" You know, you get the bag of hair and you go, "Oh, I like this girl’s [hair]!"

So to actually see culturally what was going on, I felt bad. I felt a little guilty and I thought, "We're doing this out of vanity, and these women are doing it out of a religious sacrifice." That is just so extreme, you know?

Chris, now that you’ve done this documentary, have your daughters come away with different attitudes about their own hair?

Rock: They haven’t seen it. They’ve seen parts of it. They’re into their hair, to tell you the truth. They love their Afro puffs.

Chris Rock and his daughter Zahra at the Salvation Army's Bushwick Community Center in Brooklyn, New York

Your idea to do the movie came from a question one of your daughters asked you: "Daddy, why don’t I have good hair?" Can you talk about that?

[NOTE: A few hours after this interview took place, news broke that filmmaker Regina Kimball had filed a $5 million plagiarism lawsuit against Rock, claiming that the filmmakers of "Good Hair" stole her idea. The lawsuit was dismissed a few days later.]

Rock: Kids just say the darndest things. They really do. I can blow it out of proportion and make a movie out of it., but the day it happened, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Are you going to let your daughters get their hair relaxed?

Rock: No! When they’re teenagers, they’re your kids, but they’re not your kids. So when they’re 16, whatever …

Chris Rock and Nia Long on Fuse's "Hip Hop Shop"

Nia, have you found that your career is affected by whether you have long, straight weave hair or short hair with no weave?

Long: Not really. We were at the L.A. premiere and we all walked down the carpet. And there were probably eight prominent black actresses all around the same age — and everybody had the same hair … And I took my [weave] out the next day.

I thought, "This is ridiculous!" Because clearly, there’s some sort of message that we’re all getting … And I was like, "You know what?" — excuse my language — "F*ck it!" And when I first saw [Chris Rock, after I took out my weave], he said …

Rock: "Your beauty is original now." Before, you were like Starbucks. It’s good coffee, but it’s everywhere!

Long: Yeah, right! Like on every corner. Now I’m like Peet’s Coffee. Stronger and harder to find!

[Laughter]

Now that you’ve done this film, what’s your definition of good hair?

Long: Strong hair. Healthy hair.

Rock: Whatever hair that makes you happy is good hair … The same hairstyle doesn’t work for everybody. That’s when it gets a little like all these black women walking around looking like Jane Fonda or Dyan Cannon. Whatever hair works for you. I had a Jheri curl. A Jheri curl didn’t work for me.

Hair stylist Derek J and Chris Rock in "Good Hair"

Chris, even though a lot of people think the subject matter of "Good Hair" concerns mostly women, one of the great things about the film is that you included a male perspective by interviewing a wide range of men, from celebrities like Ice-T and Al Sharpton to men in the hair-care business to barbershop customers who talk candidly about how they’re affected by their women’s hair-care needs. How did being a man (and a husband and a father) affect how you approached dong this movie?

Rock: I knew going in, and I knew even in the editing process, that as a man, I had to be neutral in this thing. If a woman had done it, she can say whatever she wants. But if I had gone either way, for or against, I’d be hated. My preferences aren’t important. I’m a reporter, and I’m just reporting this story. I’m like Walter Cronkite. You didn’t know if he was a Republican or Democrat. You just know that he was just laying out the facts.

The annual Bronner Bros. Hair Show is a highlight of the film. Did you approach them or did they approach you to be in "Good Hair"? And what did they think of the movie?

Rock: I approached them. They loved it!

Long: It’s good exposure.

Rock: The [Bronner Bros. Hair Show] has been going on for, like, 60 years, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to have approached them about [this subject matter]. They were happy that somebody making a movie wanted to do it. We couldn’t have done the movie without them. They gave us so much access. They were easy to deal with too.

Chris Rock in "Good Hair"

The film shows in a graphic way how the chemicals in hair relaxers can erode a Coke can. And then the film shows children under the age of 5 getting their hair relaxed. Did you feel the urge to stop those kids’ parents from getting their children’s hair relaxed?

Rock: We just report it.

Long: It was surprising to me to see that scene, as a mom, to go, "Oh my God, this girl is 3 years old getting her hair relaxed." When you’re living in New York or Chicago or Atlanta, any of the big cities, our sophistication level is so much higher and our awareness is so much higher. And to see that happening in [the deep] South, it was like, "Oh my God!"

I’m sure it happens in New York, but I think most women working in a cosmopolitan city that are strong about their hair choices, we kind of know better. It’s funny, but one of my best girlfriends, who has an 8-year-old, said to me, "I had just gotten a perm to put in my daughter’s hair, and after I saw the movie, I decided not to do it."

Nia Long and her son Massai at the Los Angeles premiere of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Nia, do you allow your son to use the term "good hair"?

Long: He doesn't really know how to articulate what he's feeling. But he will say things to me like, "Mommy, why do you have a weave?" or "What's that white stuff you put on your hair?" For one Halloween, he wanted spiky hair and he said, "Why can't you just put that white stuff on my hair to make my spiky?" And I was like, "What am I doing to my child?" And I had to really explain it to him. Thank God for [Barack] Obama because I'm like, "He has an Afro, and you need to wear yours proud."

What kinds of things did you film for "Good Hair" that didn’t make the final cut of the movie?

Rock: When we started, we had men too. It wasn’t just commentary on women’s hair. But we thought no one cared about men’s hair. The only thing they cared about men was how they felt about women’s hair. There’s a whole lot of men on the cutting-room floor.

Chris Rock at the New York City premiere of "Good Hair"

Did you think about including other ethnic groups’ issues with hair? For example, did you or the other filmmakers consider the Jewish or Latino communities?

Rock: I’m black and I’m already skirting the line as a man doing this thing. I’m not messing with [other ethnic groups]. I don’t need that setup!

Chris, can you talk about "Will You Be My Black Friend?," the movie you’re doing with Oprah Winfrey as one of the producers?

Rock: I guess I’ll be the "black friend" [in the movie]. There was an article in GQ by a white guy [Devin Friedman] who was getting married, and he realized he didn’t have any black friends. I guess it would look embarrassing to not look quite as hip as you think you are. So he goes out and tries to find a black friend. We don’t have a script yet or anything.

And what do you think about what it’ll be like to work with Oprah?

Rock: I can’t wait. I like the concept of having a real boss. There’s no power struggle here!

[Laughter]

Chris Rock at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

You’ve been on Oprah’s talk show multiple times, but what was it like being on her show to promote "Good Hair"?

Rock: It was the best time I was ever on "Oprah," because the movie is bigger than me. Normally, me and the movie are running neck-and-neck.

Long: And you’re like yourself in this ["Good Hair" movie].

Rock: Yeah! The topic is bigger than me. I was almost in the audience. It felt that way. I could just sit back and watch; people would react and say things and do things. It didn’t require me.

Was there anyone you wanted to be in "Good Hair" but you couldn’t get?

Rock: For every person in the movie, there are probably about two or three people who got cut from the movie. We really wanted Diana Ross.

Long: She’s not telling her secrets!

Rock: My mother would love that! Diana was the only one we made the second or third call to. It’s not a big deal. She’s got things to do. There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to spend your time with me.

Chris Rock with actresses Sarah Jones, Nia Long and Tracie Thoms at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah

Can you talk about how it was getting funding for "Good Hair" to be made?

Rock: It was a hard, hard thing. Nobody wanted to make this movie. In different incarnations, I had been trying to make this movie for years. When I’d bring it up to people, they tried to change the subject. They’d want to send me a cop script. "Hey, come on, bust up an ecstasy ring!" We did the research for this on my money … Then HBO saw that I was serious, and they stepped in.

Did you have any thoughts on the black guy in the movie who said that he’d rather be with white women than black women because white women’s hair is easier to handle?

Long: I wanted to kick his ass!

Rock: He had to be in the movie.

Long: That’s a real attitude though. That attitude exists with some black men. But then there are some black women who say, "I’d rather date white men because they treat me better." It is what it is.

Rock: How many relationships does a person have? [He says jokingly] If you get three bad ones, you’re switching colors. I’m just saying! I saw [the movie] "Precious." This was obviously written by someone who’s had some bad black men in her life. It’s no reflection on me. I’m not beating nobody’s ass!

[Laughter]

Nia, you’re on the cover of Essence magazine’s November 2009 issue, and in the article, you talked about a painful experience when you went to a Supercuts hair salon as a child. Can you elaborate on that?

Long: I basically went on a field trip with the Brownies … and we were in Iowa. So I went in [the salon] and I was the only little black girl in the group. And it is just that feeling you get. [All black women] have felt it: whether you have walked into a store and they're looking to see if you're really shopping or whatever it is, we've just all been there. So the stylist who was assigned to do my hair, she was just scared to death. She didn't know what to do. I had a big Afro. It was horrific.

Nia Long at the New York City premiere of "Good Hair"

How did you go from that traumatized girl in Supercuts to the confident woman you are today?

Long: My mother. My mom is super-strong. My mother has tattoos on her face and on her neck. She’s got dreads. She's a hippie and she does not care what anyone thinks of her. When she walks into a room, she owns it, but she’s very sweet. It's not a rebellious thing; it's just who she is. My mother was wearing leg warmers when they were out of style, and she was still wearing them when they came back 20 years later.

When you grow up in a house with a mom like that, you take on some of those attitudes. Our styles are totally different but she's given me a total appreciation for lack women, black beauty and black culture. And my father is a writer, so I really didn't have a choice. It’s in my house.

There’s been a lot of black hairstyles that have been the butt of jokes, whether it be the Jheri curl or the Kid 'n Play fade or the Afro. Is there any hairstyle that’s associated with black people that you think should stay in the past?

Rock: The Jheri curl should be kept in the past. We filmed a lot of stuff on the Jheri curl. That was the hardest cut — taking the Jheri curl out. We at one point had assembled a roundtable of men who still had Jheri curls.

Long: Some people have a long way to go.

Jheri curls are kind of like the black version of the mullet.

Rock: It is kind of the black version of the mullet. And with these guys, you had to know where to go to get a Jheri curl.

Chris Rock at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

When you tackle a big subject matter like "black hair care," you could easily start thinking about how far back in history you could go. So how did you decide the cutoff point?

Rock: The original thought was the [Bronner Bros.] hair show. It kind of grew from the hair show. I didn’t want to do a historical thing with Madam CJ Walker. Soledad [O’Brien] and those guys can knock that out, with the whole history of black hair. I just didn’t want to do that. I wanted it to be in the movie theater, so I wanted it to be something more entertaining and contemporary.

So what do you think is the main reason why so many black people want to change their natural hair?

Rock: When I was putting crap in my hair, it just seemed like, "Oh, I’m famous. This is what you’re supposed to do." Before the Obamas, the Jacksons were the first black family.

Long: And [the Jacksons] got rid of their Afros as soon as they started making serious money.

Rock: And some people thought, "Whatever the Jacksons have, that’s what you’re supposed to do."

Long: In Hollywood, actresses in general have a pressure to look a certain way. When you get on set, there is usually a white hairstylist in the trailer. She was not trained to do natural [black] hair. She knows nothing about a pressing comb. It's getting easier and easier to have your own team and have people there that know how to cater to our needs.

If you have a shower scene … and then in the next scene you're supposed to have your hair flying in the wind, you're going to have some problems and production is going to be pissed because it’s going to take an hour and a half to make that switchover. That’s part of it.

But we do have to look at whether or not we're trying to conform or deny our natural beauty. You have to ask yourself that question. And if the answer is "No, I just like my hair like this," or "I want to wear a weave. I want to perm my hair," then it's absolutely fine. It's a fashion choice.

Photo credits: Photos #1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 14: AP. Photos #6, 9, 11: Getty Images. Photos #3, 7, 8: Roadside Attractions.