Dolly Parton’s Coworker Claimed She’s Been Wearing Wigs Since Childhood
For years, Dolly Parton has favored gravity-defying hairstyles that are only possible through her extensive collection of wigs. Parton has spoken openly about her fondness for wigs and rarely steps out without one on. One of her former co-workers recalled Parton donning wigs in radio and television appearances when she was quite young.
Dolly Parton’s coworker recalled her wearing wigs from a young age
When Parton was ten years old, she began making appearances on Cas Walker’s Farm and Home Hour. This was a professional music gig, and Parton threw herself into her work. Even from an early age, she displayed some of the glittering showmanship that made her famous in adulthood. She wore eye-catching dresses, makeup, and, according to one musician on the show, wigs.
“She was always hep on wigs,” banjo player Bud Brewster said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She wore wigs — I mean, she loved ’em. Especially after she got about twelve or thirteen years old. She was just real hep on ’em.”
Brewster recalled that even when Parton didn’t have a wig on, she styled her hair to perfection.
“With her real hair, it was always teased into a bouffant, after she got about twelve or thirteen,” he said. “And then sometimes she’d put a big long fall back there and let it hang down her back.”
Dolly Parton shared why she loves wearing wigs
According to Parton, she began wearing wigs because years of bleaching her hair began to take its toll.
“Having the bleach and all of that, it just broke off,” Parton said on Hallmark’s Home & Family, adding, “I thought, ‘Why am I going through all that? Why not just wear wigs?’ That way I never have a bad hair day. I have a big hair day, but not a bad hair day.”
She also said that despite her best efforts, she struggled to get her natural hair to hold the style she wanted it to. Wigs solved this problem for her, and have been a regular part of her life for years.
“I always wore my hair all teased up,” she wrote in the Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. “Whenever that style started, I was the first to get my hair all poofy. Then as soon as I could buy those hairpieces and wigs, I wanted them. For one thing, they were so handy. Plus, my hair would never do exactly what I wanted it to do. So the wigs became kind of my trademark.”
She revealed what her real hair looks like
While Parton rarely wears her natural hair in public, she said it doesn’t look much different than the wigs she favors. It may not reach the heights her wigs do, but she keeps it her classic shade of blonde.
“I keep my own hair the same color and a little longer than shoulder length, just to the top of my boob,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “That way I can just pull it up with a little scrunchie. I was born blond and couldn’t wait to get it blonder. I started buying peroxide as soon as I could afford it! I just am a blonde. That’s just my nature. It’s me.”
