What’s so funny about so many black women wanting “white” hair• Plenty, it turns out, in Chris Rock’s surprisingly insightful documentary.

The well-known history of black people straightening their natural curls is more tragedy than comedy, rooted in the bygone belief that all things European were better than anything African. But Rock sheds new light on this old story through a poignant mix of interviews, investigation and his trademark satire.

More than a dozen famous and beautiful black women sit for Rock’s camera, ranging from the sage Maya Angelou to video vixen Melyssa Ford to an interior designer with a skin disease that has left her proudly bald. Their testimony illuminates today’s reality: Black women who straighten their hair are not ashamed of their heritage — like women the world over, they just want to work with what they have.

There are many scenes in beauty and barbershops across the country, where the various meanings, rules and ramifications of black hairstyles are discussed. But the best revelations come when Rock examines the sodium hydroxide relaxer that turns nappy heads silky, and the origins of the shorn human hair that is “weaved” into shorter tresses to create the illusion of length and fullness.

Rock is the perfect host. His ad-libbed quips and silly-serious questions put interview subjects and viewers at ease with this sometimes-painful reality, keeping them laughing instead of crying.

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