Hair Wars

Documentary maker Morgan Matthews delves into the world of competitive hairdressing, following the discipline at different levels within the UK. At one level he follows Keith, the head of the UK international team as they compete across Europe. Outside of this Matthews also joins former World Champion John Phelps whose success went to his lead and led him to be banned from competition for five years. With this new wife Leslie, John now trains the next generation of champions and attempts to be a role model to his teenage step-daughters.

Morgan Matthews has done very well off the modern "quirkumentary" genre, which Louis Theroux has created within the UK television market. With his films on taxidermy, a Israeli Elvis impersonator and pigeon fanciers, Matthews' films often get the subject right but struggle to have much in the way of substance beyond the "quirky" appeal they have. So with Hair Wars (yet another half-hearted pun title) I was worried that yet again I would be vaguely amused but not much else. In this case though I was wrong but it did appear to be more down to luck than anything else. The world of hairdressing throws out lots of drama and intrigue as we find broken families, troubled teenagers, affairs and controversial judging decisions.

Many of Matthews films do rather heavily rely on the quirk-effect but don't have a great deal beyond this. Here though the events in the lives of the various characters and competitions make the film more than that. We have Keith probably having an affair with young hairdresser Sam and breaking up with his wife for a while. We have Leslie's daughter Dawn showing herself to be the role model for the asbo generation by stealing and fighting drunks on the streets with other hoodies. The we have Sam, cursing, swearing and full of arrogance and marking herself out as a typically crude Brit abroad. All the characters are interesting for different reasons and they all make for an interesting and engaging step into this world. Unlike some of his other films where I felt like Matthews was missing a point, this one had so much going on that I felt the characters were the film and made for an entirely strong one. Matthews himself makes a physical appearance here but his greater input is the way he pushes his subjects, questioning and probing them in the way he didn't in Blue Suede Jew.

Overall then an thoroughly enjoyable example of the quirkumentary thanks to the characters and the nature of the competitive world and one of the stronger films I have seen from Morgan Matthews over te past month or so.