Dolly Parton Wore The Best Wigs For A Genuinely Relatable Reason Until The End

Dolly Parton was known for her larger-than-life personality and flashy fashion, with her voluminous, bleach blond hair being a major part of her public persona. Just as she's been transparent about her use of plastic surgery and her preference for fake nails, the Tennessee native wasn't shy about using wigs to achieve some of her most iconic looks. Her reasoning is pretty relatable, too.

"I started wearing wigs because I quickly realized that bleaching and teasing my hair every day would cause breakage and not look good," the celeb told Vogue in 2023. As seen in Parton's head-turning hair transformation, the "Jolene" singer carried an affinity for oversized hairstyles throughout her life, rocking a blond beehive back in high school. So, when hair pieces and wigs became more common, she was a quick adopter of the products.

While Parton was originally motivated by her hair health, a concern all beauty lovers share, she found that wigs were pretty convenient. "It was handy to have several looks that I could just choose from, and never have a bad hair day," she continued. 

While nobody wants to encounter the telltale signs of damaged hair, there are some aspects of Dolly Parton's affinity for wigs that are a little less relatable. For one, the "9 to 5" singer shared with ET that she owned a startling number of faux hair pieces. "Once somebody asked me, 'How many wigs do you have?'" she recounted in 2023. "I said, 'Well, I must have at least 365, because I wear one almost every day.'"

Given the number of Parton's iconic, over-the-top outfits, it's not surprising that the late star had an equally vast collection of wigs. Though she naturally hasn't held onto every wig she's kept, she shared replicas of some of her favorites when appearing on "Home & Family" in 2016, with the big and curly style worn on the cover of her "Rainbow" album being a notable addition. Colleen Owens was behind some of the iconic 'dos from the country star's early career, while she began working with London-based stylist Sarah Necia Wood in 2020.

Parton made sure to stay true to herself even as her particular look shifted and evolved, a quality that the late star will always be known for. "I look totally artificial, but I am totally real, as a writer, as a professional, as a human being," she told Elle. "A rhinestone shines just as good as a diamond."