Over the years, Dolly Parton has had about every hairstyle imaginable. Those who don’t know any better are fooled into thinking this is part of Parton’s signature “magic,” but that’s not the case. Instead, Parton manages to achieve her various looks through the use of wigs.
Parton has never tried to hide the fact that she wears wigs, and she does so for a good reason. After trying get the looks she wanted with bleach and hot curlers, she knew she was damaging her hair. Being on the road meant her hair needed constant styling and attention, which made matters even worse. So to protect her hair, Parton simply started wearing wigs, which allowed her to pull off any look she wanted to.
During an interview with Home & Family for the Hallmark Channel, Parton spoke more about her choice to wear wigs. Beyond protecting her natural hair, Parton says one of the main reasons she wears wigs was to make her hair as big as possible.
“Why not just wear wigs?” she said. “That way I never have a bad hair day. I have a big hair day, but not a bad hair day…Gospel singers and country singers just have to have that big hair, it’s just a thing.“
Parton also took the time to share three of her favorite wigs, starting with one she wore in 1973 for a duets album cover with Porter Wagoner. The curly wig included blue ribbons weaved throughout, which Parton said made it look like the thing her and Wagoner “found” was “a nest of possums.”
Another wig Parton showed off was one she wore to pose for her 1987 album, Rainbow, and since it was the 80s, this was one of Parton’s biggest wigs. She admits she was so tiny at the time the hair was probably bigger than she was, but she didn’t care. “Oh I was thinking I looked so sexy!” she said.
Today, Parton tends to lean more towards calmer waves as opposed to her big, curly wigs of the past. Does that mean she has regrets about some of her past hairstyle choices?
“I look at myself sometimes in all of those pictures and think ‘oh my Lord what was I thinkin’?‘” she said with a laugh.
You can check out the rest of Parton’s hysterical interview about her wigs in the video below. We think she’s beautiful no matter what her hair looks like!
