Good Hair Page #2

are you most worried about?

Probably Jason.

Jason Griggers.

Me and Jason

know of each other.

Do you have

any enemies in hair?

No.

Jason's strength

is his incredible hairstyles.

l, actually, am

from the same hometown as Jason.

He's been doing my hair

since about 2000,

and my hair was her length

when I started coming,

and this is mine.

No tracks in this.

So he has what we used to call

''the growing hand.''

I never said that.

So, Jason, you seem to be able

to get women off the weaves.

You're kind of like

the Betty Ford of black hair.

I refer to it

as the Rosa Parks of hair.

Jason...

where does a white man

learn how to do black hair?

In school,

they teach you everything.

This one teacher that I had,

she would always give me

a pair of these

to walk around school with,

and she'd say,

''l don't hear you

clicking and twisting.

''l don't hear you

clicking and twisting.''

Was she a black woman?

She was a black woman.

She was

the only black teacher at school.

And she was determined

to teach you--

She was determined to teach me

how to work those Marcel irons.

So she's like Branch Rickey

and you're the Jackie Robinson.

That's ''The Jackie Robinson Story''

starring Jackie Robinson as himself.

It's big league all the way.

There are some white people

that are good at doing black hair.

But there are very few

that I've met.

There are very few.

So what happens is,

you walk in

and the first thing you say is,

''Do you have a pressing comb?

''Do you have a flat iron?''

And it's like, ''Oh, yeah!

''You know, we have everything.

''l can do whatever you need.''

And then the process starts.

The process starts,

and it's a little tragic.

If you don't

understand black hair,

you're afraid of it

if you see it in its natural state.

And you can't really see around it.

They don't understand

that it can change.

''Give me two days, baby.

''What you want?

Long, short, black, blue, green?

''Little fan on the side?

What hair do you look--

''Give me a picture, give me

two days, I got you.''

ls this your hair?

Yes. All mine.

- All your hair?

- All mine.

Shake it for me.

I mean, how does this happen?

What did you put in it?

If you went under the counter

in a black woman's bathroom,

she's got about thirty

or forty bottles of different things.

She's always constantly

trying out something,

trying to perfect

the solution, if you will.

The antidote.

The antidote. Yeah.

Relaxer.

The closest thing we have

to a nap antidote.

For all you white people out there

that don't know what it is,

you name a black woman,

any black woman,

no matter how famous

or infamous,

they've either

had their hair relaxed,

or they're having

their hair relaxed right now.

And a lot of black men, too.

If your hair's relaxed,

white people are relaxed.

If your hair is nappy,

they're not happy.

So what's

your definition of good hair?

Something that looks

relaxed and nice.

Yeah, relaxed and straight.

Wow, what do you have there?

ls that a bucket of relaxer?

No doubt, baby.

Relaxer.

Also known by its government name,

sodium hydroxide.

Relaxer's the chemical that will

take a black woman's hair from this...

and change it into this.

Wow.

Look at it.

My ring is still there.

My fingers all there.

I think I'm going to marry you.

In fact,

as far as hair products go,

relaxer's the cash cow

for the Bronner Brothers Hair Show.

It's how black women have been

getting their hair straight for decades.

Vigorol Liquid Hair Relaxer.

You're going to love your hair

like you've never loved it,

come rain or come shine.

The first time I got a relaxer,

I remember thinking,

''Wow, now I'm pretty.

''Now, I'm beautiful...

''or closer to it, at least.''

Dark and Lovely

Permanent Creme Relaxer.

A beautiful way

to relax your kind of hair.

Mentally,

I think a lot of black women,

they're on this quest for

attaining the straightest hair possible,

trying to conform

to a more European look.

The straighter hair, the better.

And we've been coached

with that mentality since childhood.

With Vigorol Hair Relaxer

and a hot comb,

you'll have your hands full.

I remember seeing ads like this

when I was a little kid

watching ''Soul Train.''

What the hell

is relaxer anyway?

Where does it come from?

Well, some of it comes

from Greensboro, North Carolina.

This medium-size town

was once the capital

of the Confederacy.

White will fight desegregation!

But now it's the home

of Dudley Products,

a $35-million black-owned

hair empire

that employs thousands

of people worldwide.

Greensboro is the home

of the Dudley Mansion,

the Dudley Beauty School,

Mr. Dudley himself,

and, of course,

Dudley Manufacturing.

Dudley Products have been valued

at up to $100 million.

The plant itseIf is worth over ten.

It employs hundreds of people

and is situated

on over 47,000 acres

of prime North Carolina real estate.

In short,

Mr. Dudley is a nap impresario.

Bad hair has been very good

for Mr. Dudley.

What's he doin'?

Joe is making relaxer.

This is how they make relaxer?

This is a portion

of a 7,000-pound batch of relaxer.

7,000 pounds

is worth how much?

7,000 pounds,

you're talking about $18,000.

This would last Prince

about a month.

Exactly.

The slightest

little bit of these chemicals

can really cause harm

to the body.

A splash of sodium hydroxide

in your eye

can potentially lead to blindness.

It may not happen right away,

but it can lead to blindness

later on in life.

But you'll eventually

have a dog.

Yes, you will eventually have one.

And the more

of these chemicals you inhale

as you continue to work in it,

it can have

an adverse affect on your body.

Let me read some of these.

''The rate of change

is controlled by what factors?

Temperature, concentration,

time, and pH.''

Wow, what's that word?

What? Ammonium thioglycolate?

Wait. Say that again

to the camera.

Ammonium thioglycolate.

You're smart.

Enrollment at

the Dudley School of Beauty

means one thing:

long nights poring over scalp theory.

These budding hair scholars

master the chemistry

of Dudley products

and how to use them

on mannequins,

even white mannequins.

They are

also tested on the finer points

of how not to put relaxer

in the eyes,

how not to burn ears

with hot combs,

but most importantly,

they learn

that if you can make

enough black women happy,

you can live like a king.

When you go back home,

I want you to tell the world,

we manufacture

our own product,

we sell our own product

to our own, through our own.

That's the reason why we will

never sell our company.

Because if I asked you

to take off the clothes

that you didn't buy

from your race,

it would be a nudist camp

in here right now.

The nudity thing

was a little weird,

but if you sniff

enough chemicals,

you just might say anything.

But I've got to admit,

looking at these

proud black women

just made me think

about my daughters.

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