Review: 'Manscaping' Finds the Eros in Hair

Broderick Fox, the maker of 2012's "The Skim I'm In" and 2015's "Zen & the Art of Dying," is back with a new documentary feature, the hourlong "Manscaping," looks at one of the oldest aspects of grooming: How people care for, tend to, and wear their hair. But this film isn't an essay on hairstyling; it's an exploration on the way hair and grooming intersect with societal expectations of gender, personal presentation, and community.

Pittsburgh-based artist Devan Shimoyama talks about how hair and race are connected, recounting a time he went into a barbershop only to be told that the establishment did not cut "textured" hair. That relates directly to Shimoyama's observations about the "hyper-masculine" space of the barbershop – a place where men find community, but where non-heterosexual or non-cisgender men might find themselves excluded. Shimoyama translates those insights to his canvases, which combine collage and paint, with beautifully expressive results.

Transgender barber Jesse Anderson runs a barbershop called "Big Bro's" in Vancouver, Canada, and he maintains and open and affirming business where clients don't encounter reflexive gender codes around hair. What's more, Anderson also offers is clients products that don't have much to do with hair, but have everything to do with gender presentation: An array of bindings, packers, and prosthetic penises fill bins in the back of his shop.

Richard Savvy – known as "The Naked Barber" to his clientele in Sydney, Australia – allows eros and fantasy to be part of his services. What's more, he addresses needs around trimming and waxing under the belt line – the sort of manscaping viewers might most readily associate with the film's title. Just as nonjudgmental and thoughtful as the others profiled in the doc, Savvy gladly works with transgender clients, and, during is free time, just as gladly subs to women in the bondage scene; we see him being lovingly trussed up and then hoisted, dangling against a black backdrop as though drifting in free-fall and looking absolutely blissful.

Think you have nothing new to hear about the art and social meaning of getting your hair done? This eye-opening film will show you new things you may never have imagined.

Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.

This story is part of our special report: "OUTshine 2022". Want to read more? Here's the full list.