Comic Chris Rock tells Oprah Winfrey that his fingers have been “thirsty” to the touch girls’s hair.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Chris Rock investigated the black hair business after daughter admired white hairSays black hair care business pulls in some $9 million a yearBiggest moneymaker is hair weaves — as much as $5,000, says RockHe says hair straightening chemical compounds are too harsh for babies
(OPRAH.com) — Chris Rock is an Emmy-winning comic, faithful husband and loving father –but it is time to get to grasp a brand new facet of this funnyman. Meet Chris Rock, hair professional.
It is a detour he took after an blameless carpool experience left Rock with an concept he simply could not shake.
“I used to be with my daughter in the future, and we are within the automotive and she or he’s with one among her pals within the again seat, slightly white buddy,” he says. “She was once simply roughly raving about her buddy’s hair slightly an excessive amount of for my convenience [saying]: ‘You have got nice hair. Oh, your hair’s so just right.'”
Now not short of to make her feedback a large deal, Rock says he attempted to play his them off. “[I said]: “Oh, child, your hair’s stunning. Come on,'” he says. “If I’d have actually reacted, then she would have a fancy about her hair.”
Nonetheless, Rock could not let it pass. “It sparked one thing in me,” he says.
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What Rock found out is a $9 billion business that has effects on the day-to-day actions, wallets, vainness — or even the intercourse lives — of black girls. As a result of girls spend such a lot money and time on their hair, Rock says males are compelled to undertake a hands-off coverage.
If you have got a weave, your scalp’s like a beat up freeway
–Chris Rock
“You can not contact a black lady’s hair. You might be conditioned to not even pass there,” he says. “When I used to be a relationship man, I dated girls from other races. Anytime I used to be with an Asian or a Puerto Rican lady or a white lady, my fingers would continuously be of their hair. Like my fingers have been thirsty.”
One of the vital first classes Rock realized in this adventure was once that ladies do their hair for one some other. “They are saying it is for the lads, yet it is actually for the ladies. As a result of guys do not care,” he says. “There is no level within the historical past of the arena the place males weren’t snoozing with the ladies in entrance of them. We take what we will get.”
Actress Nia Lengthy, who Rock interviews within the movie, consents. “There may be at all times this kind of drive throughout the black neighborhood like, you probably have just right hair, you are prettier or higher than the brown-skinned lady that wears the Afro or the dreads or the herbal coiffure,” she says.
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Rock discovered the largest moneymaker within the hair industry to be weaves. Black girls can spend six to 8 hours getting their hair braided into tiny sections. Stylists then delicately connect tracks of hair — which can also be easy extensions or complete wigs — to the braids.
“If you have got a weave, your scalp’s like a beat up freeway,” Rock jokes.
Girls who put on weaves forestall by means of the salon for normal washes, conditioning and tightening, yet the true expense lies with the hair itself. Rock says he was once stunned to be told that common girls spend hundreds of greenbacks on weaves — or even put them on layaway.
“Janet Jackson spends $5,000 to visit the Grammys on her hair. I did not know Kiki was once spending $5,000 to visit AT&T and solution the telephone,” he says. “That was once traumatic.”
Rock found out the freshest hair available on the market is located in India, the place human hair is the quantity two export at the back of instrument. “That is one of the vital worst poverty on the earth,” he says. “I do not believe [people] know they are strolling round with $1,000 on their head.”
Whilst in India, Rock witnessed a tonsuring rite on the Venkateswara Temple. Yearly, greater than 10 million other folks lower their hair off as an providing to the Hindu gods. “In India, hair is regarded as a conceit, and taking away hair is regarded as an act of self-sacrifice,” he says.
“Those other folks do not know the place their hair goes or how a lot it is value. The cash made at this temple is 2nd simplest to the Vatican. The hair accrued this is auctioned off to exporters who distribute it across the planet.”
Every other staple of the business is relaxers — often known as “creamy crack” by means of some. Whilst girls of different races use perms so as to add curl, black girls use them to straighten their hair. “You title a black lady, any black lady,” Rock says. “They have got both had their hair at ease, or they are having their hair at ease at the moment.”
The energetic component in relaxer is a substance known as sodium hydroxide. The chemical is so robust it could actually burn a lady’s hair off — which is why Rock is urging folks to forestall the stress-free dependancy now. “This kiddie perm has to forestall, k? They do not need to fret about that until they are of their teenagers,” he says. “Placing the ones chemical compounds in that kid’s hair just isn’t cool.”
Rock says he tells his personal daughters they are stunning each and every second he can –and has just one solution in terms of questions of getting just right hair. “No matter makes you glad is just right hair,” he says. “Do your hair for you, and you are going to feel free.”
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From The Oprah Winfrey Display ” © 2009
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