CNN || Chris Rock on the billion dollar black 'good hair' industry

Chris Rock is an Emmy-winning comedian, devoted husband and loving father --but it's time to get to know a new side of this funnyman. Meet Chris Rock, hair expert.

It's a detour he took after an innocent carpool ride left Rock with an idea he just couldn't shake.

"I was with my daughter one day, and we're in the car and she's with one of her friends in the back seat, a little white friend," he says. "She was just kind of raving about her friend's hair a little too much for my comfort [saying]: 'You've got great hair. Oh, your hair's so good.'"

Not wanting to make her comments a big deal, Rock says he tried to play his them off. "[I said]: "Oh, baby, your hair's beautiful. Come on,'" he says. "If I would have really reacted, then she would have a complex about her hair."

Still, Rock couldn't let it go. "It sparked something in me," he says.

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What Rock discovered is a $9 billion industry that affects the daily activities, wallets, self-esteem -- and even the sex lives -- of black women. Because women spend so much time and money on their hair, Rock says men are forced to adopt a hands-off policy.

"You cannot touch a black woman's hair. You are conditioned not to even go there," he says. "When I was a dating guy, I dated women from different races. Anytime I was with an Asian or a Puerto Rican girl or a white girl, my hands would constantly be in their hair. Like my hands were thirsty."

One of the first lessons Rock learned on this journey was that women do their hair for one another. "They say it's for the men, but it's really for the women. Because guys don't care," he says. "There's no point in the history of the world where men were not sleeping with the women in front of them. We take what we can get."