Dolly Parton's Hair Transformation Through The Years

What is it about Dolly Parton that can light up any room? Is it her giant, genuine smile? Her sparkly, instantly recognizable voice? Her infectious positivity and Southern charm? Or is it her signature look that has inspired countless Halloween costumes over the years, with the dramatic false eyelashes and big, blond hair? Regardless, there's something about the queen of country music that has drawn droves of fans for decades.

As a celebration of the performer, who disappointed fans when she had to postpone her Las Vegas residency in October 2025 due to undisclosed health reasons, we combed through Dolly Parton's biggest hair moments to track the transformation of her tresses through the years. From a cropped youngster to a regular wig wearer and a star who wears more sedated strands today, the "Jolene" singer, who turned 79 in 2025, has had her fair share of hair transformations worth mentioning.

Dolly Parton credits her mother for introducing her to music at a young age. The Tennessee native, who is one of 12 children (read all about Dolly Parton's sisters here), got her first break as a 10-year-old, when she performed on a local Knoxville variety show. In a portrait taken around the time, it shows the natural wave in the "9 to 5" singer's hair. 

As she grew up, Parton let her short crop grow out and teased it into a big bouffant. A portrait from 1965 shows proof that Parton's hair reached impressive heights. In a December 2020 video feature with Allure, Parton reflected on how she would back-comb her hair to achieve the beehive look. She explained that all the country singers had the style at the time: "If you didn't have big hair, you weren't going to make it far." Fair enough!

Dolly Parton's 1967 debut album, "Hello, I'm Dolly," was an award-winning chart-topper that showed Parton had talent in spades. Her fame and hairstyles seemed to follow a parallel trajectory: They both got bigger. The "Islands in the Stream" singer's hair transformation took its biggest shift in this era. As she explained to Allure in 2020, she had been bleaching and teasing her hair, causing considerable damage. Still, she didn't want to forego her beloved voluminous blonde look, so she rejoiced when wigs became high-quality and realistic enough that she could wear them on stage. This would begin her life-long relationship with wearing hair pieces.

As she told the outlet, "I thought I'd been set free because I just thought, 'Well, I can have a hairdo of any kind anytime I want it'." In the '70s, that translated to mega volume and full curls.

Dolly Parton kicked off the '80s with a new gig and a new wig: She landed her first acting role in the film "9 to 5." She also lended her voice to the titular song, one of her most-known hits. She also wore a new hairstyle: a short and curled look that was absolutely stunning on her. That 'do was short-lived, however. For the remainder of the '80s and '90s, her go-to wig selection looked like something she might have pinched from the hair department on the set of "Dynasty." It was very on-trend for the '80s, including big and choppy layers.

But when the most iconic hairstyles of the '90s hit the stage — we're talking the Rachel, pixies, and bouncy blowouts made famous by the supermodels of the time — was Parton on board? Nope. She was still rocking her dynamic "Dynasty"-era wigs, eschewing '90s minimalism for voluminous Parton-ism.

When we say that Dolly Parton's hair toned down, as was the case in the 2000s, we mean that in terms of the singer specifically. It was still larger-than-life to match her personality, but it had less volume and less over-the-top-ness than in previous decades. As she told Allure in 2020, "As you get older, you try to find the most flattering hairdos." For Parton, that meant trying a shoulder-length wig in 2001 and a cascading updo in 2018. She was right on the money, too. Adding volume and width around the face can counteract the appearance of aging skin that's begun to sag, while softness in the hair, as opposed to spiky layering, can keep the face from looking too severe.

The 2000s also brought further career distinctions for Parton, including the Living Legends Medal from the Library of Congress, Kennedy Center Honors, and two Guinness World Records for the most country hits by a female on the charts and the most decades on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. In 2018, that meant six decades on the charts, and of course, that also meant decades of wigs. Oh, to visit her wig room.

Until she had to postpone her Las Vegas residency, Dolly Parton showed no signs of slowing down. In 2022, she hit the stage with goddaughter Miley Cyrus for the latter's New Year's Eve show, and in 2023, she performed a halftime show for a Dallas Cowboys football game on Thanksgiving. That year, she also released the album "Rockstar."

Her look also feels more current than it has in the past. With elegant updos and softer, face-framing layers, her hair transformation has found softness as the singer nears her 80s. She says it's an amalgamation of her past styles, telling Allure, "Well, I think my style today is a combination of all those things back through the years ... with my hair, we go back to those old things and just pick out the best elements and just kind of incorporate that into what's new and modern. I still, you know, I have the hair that's not as wild or as crazy, but it's still big. And if I don't like it, it's just like the wigs — I'll change it."