I saw Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, this weekend and loved it. It is hilarious, yet informative. Chris Rock did a wonderful job peeking into the different ideologies of how black women perceive natural or relaxed hair. He’s talks to different women to get their views. Celebrities such as Raven Symone, Meghan Good, Lauren London, Vanessa Bell Calloway and many more contributed. He also interviewed chemists and other people who are involved in manufacturing relaxers on a daily basis. He gets down to the nitty gritty and gives facts on the dangers of relaxers. Every black woman in America should watch this, whether your hair is natural or relaxed. I learned more about relaxers and the negative effect on the human body that I have never known. I’ve been encouraging family and friends to go natural for years because I knew that relaxers carried a dangerous chemical. But after seeing this movie, I’m encouraging everyone even more. After hearing of the dangers of relaxers, my question is, is having a relaxer really worth it?

A couple of contributors also mentioned that relaxers inhibit black women from really taking advantage of every aspect of life. Not only is it dangerous, but how could you possibly enjoy every part of life that life has to offer? You’re extremely limited in so many fun activities! I mean you can’t do much! You can’t swim, you can’t go hiking or even workout! Seeing this bought me back to my childhood. When I was about 9 years old, my best friend Jessica, was having a pool party. By this age, if not all, most of my friends had relaxers. Anyway, I’ll never forget a friend of hers, couldn’t go swimming because she just had a relaxer. She came to the pool party but had to sit out while the rest of us were having swimming races! I mean we were 9 for heaven sakes! That poor little girl! When you really examine how dangerous a relaxer is, and add to it, it takes the excitement out of life, why go through the great lengths to destroy your God given hair? And for what? To fit into the American standards of beauty? But there are other alternatives to relaxers. Pressing combs or flat iron anyone?

He also touched on black hair shows; the lack of black owned hair care companies; other races profiting off the black community; kids getting relaxers and much more, which I thought was interesting and thought provoking. His documentary also covered weaves and briefly mentioned how weaves can destroy the hair follicles. This is another conversation that I am looking forward to getting into in the next couple of issues.

I encourage everyone reading this to see the movie. It would be nice if we could even put these companies, selling these harmful products to human beings, out of business!