In the documentary "Good Hair" by the comedian Chris Rock, we are introduced to the African American hair culture. There is a consumerist culture in our society in which an obsession of beauty is determining that culture's abilities to interact. Throughout the documentary "Good Hair", Chris Rock is exposed to one of the most sensitive issues for African American women. These issues include the idea of beauty, what is beauty, and who gets to determine what is and is not beautiful?
Chris Rock visits multiple hair and beauty parlors in order to discover more about this culture. In the nine billion dollar a year African American hair industry, there is replacements hair and expensive weaves. These hair styles and products are mostly made by a white dominated beauty industry. Therefore, most beauty products even for African Americans expresses the white dominated beauty industry's' concept of beauty. However, the African American community throughout the show is adamant that they feel beautiful by succumbing to this social norm of weaves and wigs. African American women spend huge sums of their resources to make themselves more beautiful. This fascination with beauty is ingrained into the society so much that when Chris Rock wants to sell legitimate black hair extensions; he is turned down because "black hair is ugly" and "black hair is unfashionable". Fashion is considered an always changing aspect of society. Ugly is the stamp of disapproval used by a society to select individuals that represent the "others" in society. The business of designing beauty products is the system of supply and demand. Businesses that build a product for beauty are not necessarily attempting to alienate the group of people they sell the product too. Obviously at nine billion dollars a year, African Americans are obsessed with beauty products like weaves and hair extensions. What should be analyzed is the social norm of beauty. Whoever said that natural black hair is ugly or inappropriate for formal occasions?
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