Black Shampoo

A great blaxpolation title if I ever herd one.

What makes it so good is that it’s literally the black version of a Warren Beatty’s film, Shampoo. It’s been a while since I’ve seen both movies but I believe it’s the same premise. Some dude working at a beauty salon is the best hair washer in the biz cause he’s able to due more than wash hair.

Now from what I understand about Warren Beatty’s version makes more sense. Warren Beatty, has a notorious rep of being a womanizer during his hey day as one of the greatest forces in the New Hollywood movement, and it seems like Warren Beatty, made Shampoo to admit to it in some form of fashion, but what was really the point of making a Black Shampoo? Possibly that the movie had a different name when made and due to the success of shampoo, they change the name to see if the film would have the same success.

It’s better than the more likely scenario. Just like with Blacula (possibly the greatest title in the blaxpolation era) somebody wanted to make a Black Dracula so they made Blacula. This latter scenario seems odd to me, unless Shampoo was indeed that good of a movie, or Beatty did something in the film black people did not like and they decided only a Black Shampoo would make up for it (I hope that’s not the case.  I’m low key expecting one day to hear One hundred women come forward and say Beatty is a rapist and wondering how many of them are going to be black).

Well I had to look it up and I did find that the movie did have another title, Sex at the Salon, and unfortunately the title proves the latter situation was true. Shampoo came out in 1975 and someone did this black version with the original title ,Black shampoo,  and the title change to Sex at the Salon was done in later releases of the film, but obvious no matter what, Black Shampoo stuck.

It’s still kinda weird that Shampoo’s success would produce a Black Shampoo. Shampoo did make a lot of money on a small budget (4 million dollar budget made 50 million back in the 70s that’s amazing) and it was nominated for a lot of awards including a few Oscars which it won one. I mean did the filmmakers who made Black Shampoo really think it was going to break the box office and win Oscars? and I’m saying this from a point of view of racism, thinking back in the 70s you could make the greatest blaxpation movie of all time and not get the white men’s attention.

In all fairness, the greatest blaxpolation film ever did do just that.

I should point out  that Black Shampoo acts more like a soft-core porn than something met to win Oscars. I’ve seen the movie so long ago (possibly back to back with Shampoo) that I don’t remember it, but I was put under the impression that Black Shampoo had some hall of fame nudity (let me not beat around the bush I’m still a long time fan of the website Mr. Skin.com, which lets me know the quality and quantity of nude scenes per movie ). I did not remember that being the case the first time around so I decided to watch it again to see what they mean.

I see what they mean. there is a lot of nudity (so more quantity than quality). Black shampoo is about a hairdresser named Mr. Johnathan. Most people get the impression that when ypu say male Hairdresser you thinking this dude is gay.

I don’t know what that white outfit is saying to you but for me… “not the men’s department”

Apparently that was the whole point of Shampoo, which I do not member and I need to watch again. Warren Beatty, based his charter on a bunch of hairdressers he knew back in the day who he though was gay as well as the women they serviced and apparently it was that stigma that allowed these hairdressers to “serve” multiple women at a time without it being a problem for the many screwing him.

(Taking a bit of time to mention one of these hairdressers in particular, Jon Peters who use his stigma not only to screw many women in Hollywood but to become a movie producer, not just any movie producer however. He’s one of the men responsible for bringing Tim Burton’s batman to the big screen (And if you are a Kevin Smith fan you should know about a famous story The Clerks Director tells about being hired by Peters to write a (Nicolas Cage starring (that’s right!)Superman script  in which he did not want Superman to fly, wear his infamous costume and battle a giant spider(the last part he got when he had it put in the film Wild Wild West)

Mr. Jonathan is the number one Hairdresser because he knows how to take care of these women, mostly white women. It’s just a penis shot away from being a hardcore porn as every scene is just set up for Mr. Johnathan to service one white woman after the other. It almost feels like they wanted to make an adult film but someone said they would make more money (Like maybe Warren Beatty, money) if they made it a mainstream film with a workable story. No wonder Mr. Skin was like this is hall of fame nudity, for the first act of the film it was just a smorgasbord of white women for this big black dude to take care of, what was funny was how this dude seem to look at servicing these white chicks like it was truly a job. Same as hair dressing. They come in demand that they do their “hair” and he’s all like (sigh) by appointment only please. Like he can’t even be bothered with these blonde hoes (Note: not all of them were blonde but noticeably all the one’s that got naked did). I never wanted to be a hairdresser. maybe Mr. Jonathan did not either but he is good at it and you don’t want to miss your calling especially when it comes attached with so many fine white women. I think every black men wants to be Mr. J.

But the ladies are not fully taken out of this male fantasy. Mr. Johnathon is the archetype of black cinema of the 1970s, a big strong black man who looks like he plays football and takes no…Jive from anyone white or otherwise, he’s a man’s man who gives these white women the black pipe good (not afraid to get buck naked to do so(unfortunately for me ), but when it comes to romance (Because if you want to copy Warren Beatty’s  Shampoo you need that) he only gives it to a black woman.

The plot centers around Mr. Jonathan’s receptionist, Brenda who got herself into a bit of trouble before she started her job at the salon, and when it comes back to bite her Mr. Jonathan puts all the cards on the table proving what a great man he is and promises to do whatever he can to protect her, which somehow includes a romantic date montage that she could not help getting it on with him by the end of it.Overall it was a pretty romantic 6 min montage date (followed by a 12 min montage love making). It probability would not fly over 42 years after this film was release but I’m wondering how the black women felt about it in the then and now? after all,  the movie is a good showcase of how the black man should treat his queen over all others, which was pretty much what the rest of the movie was about.

So not exactly sure still what the purpose of Black Shampoo  really  was: To do what Blacula did with Dracula? Started out as a phonographic version of Shampoo? Maybe I’m just thinking too hard about what makes this movie like Shampoo and not enough about what makes it different, but I can’t answer those question. All I can say is that the movie was fun. As fun as it was then in the 70s? I say so. It seems to me that the filmmakers were quite aware of the punchline that this film is an exploited for pure fun and enjoyment. It’s not to be taken seriously it just to be watched sarcastically and believe me ti was fun to watch.

Now I got to see Shampoo again (wonder if it has any Hall of Fame Nudity?)