It’s no secret that most dermatologists advise against sleeping in a full face of makeup. But that’s because they haven’t met Dolly Parton. In her new book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, the country music legend revealed that she takes her beauty sleep too literally.
Image credits: dollyparton
The 9 to 5 singer shared that she doesn’t wash off her makeup to go to bed in case an emergency occurs in the middle of the night that requires her to leave her home.
She said she’s been doing this since the 1980s, when she moved to Los Angeles as her acting career propelled her to global stardom, an excerpt from Insider showed.
“When I arrived in LA in the ‘80s, I started sleeping with my makeup on, partly because of the earthquakes,” she wrote in the book, published Oct. 17 via Ten Speed Press. “I thought, ‘I’m not heading out on the streets without makeup in case there are cameras out there! I’m going to be ready to go!’”
"When I arrived in L.A. in the '80s, I started sleeping with my makeup on, partly because of earthquakes," she wrote
Image credits: dollyparton
Image credits: dollyparton
The Jolene star also spoke about her wish to constantly be camera-ready during an interview with WSF Magazine in 2021. “I never know if there’s going to be an earthquake or a tornado or a storm and I’m going to have to go out in the middle of the night.”
In addition to wowing her devoted fans—and shielding from online detractors—Dolly has another motivation to wear her signature makeup look, which she describes as “glamorous trash”, to sleep.
She also wears cosmetic products when she’s at home with her husband of 50 years, retired businessman Carl Dean. “This is also true back home in Tennessee. I don’t want to go to bed looking like a hag with Carl,” she wrote.
Dolly wipes off her makeup and cleans her face in the morning before reapplying her cosmetic products
Image credits: dollyparton
But this doesn’t mean that she never cleans her face. The musician clarified that she wipes off her makeup in the morning and applies face cream before reapplying another layer of makeup.
"It doesn't matter when you clean your face as long as you clean it once a day," she said. “After I wake up, I do all the little rituals, and then I start over again and go out every day and look good all day long.”
Growing up in a poor household in Tennessee, the star used to create her own makeup at home using products like matches and pokeberries
Image credits: dollyparton
Image credits: dollyparton
In her book, the eleven-time Grammy winner recalls using household products, such as matches, and wild plants like pokeberries as makeup given that she didn’t have enough money to buy real products when she was a young girl.
“Pokeberries were major because you could mash them up and make a stain that—boy!—takes forever to come off. I would paint my lips with that,” she wrote in her book, written with Holly George-Warren and curated by Parton's niece, Rebecca Seaver.
“I also used household goods to make homemade cosmetics. I’d strike one of Mama’s long wooden kitchen matches, put a little spit on the end of it, and use that to color in my eyebrows and my beauty mark.”
She revealed that she wears many inexpensive brands, such as Maybelline and Max Factor
Image credits: dollyparton
Image credits: dollyparton
Now, the 77-year-old singer-songwriter still finds herself mixing and matching different products to create new shades.
She touches up her makeup throughout the day and, if she needs to go out, adds ”a little more shadow, a little more glitter, redder or brighter lipstick” for an evening look.
The star has a few products and brands she swears by. As she told The New York Times, she uses “a lot of Maybelline products,” an Almay mascara, and Max Factor Panstik makeup.
The singer-songwriter described her look as "glamorous trash"
Image credits: dollyparton
"There's so many of the products that don't cost a fortune that are just as good as the most expensive things you buy," the Grammy winner declared earlier this month. "And believe me, I know, because I am about makeup."
Will fans ever see her with a bare face? Only if she was dead, she joked. "You’d just have to see me laid out on a stretcher,” she commented, before offering an honest answer “No, if my husband was sick, or if there was an emergency, of course, I would [leave the house without makeup].”
Will fans ever see her with a bare face? "You'd have to see me laid out on a stretcher," she joked
Image credits: dollyparton
There are other unlikely scenarios that would lead to her losing control over her appearance.
“If I got arrested for a bad tag or whatever, I don’t want a mugshot looking like some of the stars I’ve seen,” she added. “I’m going to clean up a little if I’m going outside, unless there’s an absolute emergency, and it would have to be pretty serious. I would do it then, but that would be the only way.”
Makeup lovers had mixed reactions regarding Dolly's skincare routine
