Dolly Parton’s Family Thought She Was Possessed by the Devil Because of Her Hair
Dolly Parton describes herself as a very spiritual person, but she explained that her family once thought she was under the influence of Satan. She explained that both her mother and grandfather were so upset by her changing looks that they thought the devil was behind it. She shared the way she reacted to them.
The ‘9 to 5’ singer based her look on a woman in her hometown
Parton established her signature look long before she became famous. She said she was fascinated by a woman in her hometown.
“I really patterned my look after the town tramp in our hometown, the trollop,” Parton said on The Oprah Conversation. “The one that would kind of walk up and down the streets, get in a car, ride off for a few minutes, come back and get in another car.”
She knew that this was how she wanted to look.
“I didn’t know anything about that part then,” she said. “I just knew she was beautiful. She had all this beautiful blonde hair, red lipstick and makeup, tight short skirts and high heel shoes. I just thought she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen so I kind of patterned my look after that. I always loved the Frederick’s of Hollywood magazines. That was just kind of to me how I felt, like I wanted to look.”
Dolly Parton said her family was stunned by her hair and makeup
Parton soon began embracing the look in her own life. She started using matchsticks and berries for makeup and teased her hair to gravity-defying heights. Her family had a difficult time with this. Her grandfather, a preacher, believed that Satan had possessed her after he saw her bleached hair. When her mother saw her, she expressed a similar sentiment.
“The first time my Mama saw me all done up with blonde bleached hair all piled up, and my lips, cheeks and nails as red as I could get them, she screamed to the Lord, ‘Why are you testing me this way?’ And she told me the devil must have made me do it,” Parton said, per UPI. “‘Heck no,’ I told Mama. ‘Let’s give credit where it’s due: I did this all myself.'”
She stuck with the look. It was different, but it suited her well.
“I was so unusual, people thought I was a whore, too,” she told the Evening Standard. “They thought I screwed everybody coming down the road. It wasn’t true. I was just a different person, I was my own self. I didn’t want to be like my mother.”
Dolly Parton said her family has always been supportive of her
Parton said that despite her family’s shock at her look, they encouraged her to be creative. Her mother was particularly supportive, something that drew judgment from others.
“Oh, it set some tongues to waggin’, all right,” she said in 1979, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “The other women were sayin’, ‘That Avie Lee’ — that’s Momma — ‘her girls is too free for their own good.’ But Momma paid no mind. I owe a lot to her when it comes to independence.”
She said that her mother encouraged individuality.
“Now Momma was the daughter of a Fundamentalist preacher and her people was strict,” she said. “A woman wasn’t allowed to dance, to wear bright clothes. She couldn’t even cut her hair. Well, Momma married Daddy at 15 — he was 17 — and the first thing she did was cut her hair. She was so young, she really grew up with us kids, and as she found her own self, she taught us to be ourselves no matter what. Life was hard, but Momma made it seem beautiful. She didn’t have much to work with, but she always encouraged imagination.”
