This is why Dolly Parton has been sleeping in her makeup since the ’80s

For years, we’ve been told that it’s best for our skin to carefully remove every trace of makeup before going to bed. So imagine our surprise when we learned that Dolly Parton, the ageless angel of country music herself, has been sleeping in full makeup for around 40 years now? We’d follow her anywhere, so we had to hear more. And to be honest, her reasoning makes perfect sense.

Parton released her much-anticipated memoir, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, on Tuesday. In it, she shared this beauty secret, which started when she left the tobacco farm in rural Tennessee where she grew up to seek stardom in sunny California.

“When I arrived in LA in the 80s, I started sleeping with my makeup on, partly because of the earthquakes,” she wrote. “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!'”

And you know what? She’s not wrong.

Even when Parton moved back to Tennessee, where earthquakes (and paparazzi) are notably less common, the habit stuck — though she wrote that by then, it was more for the benefit of her husband, Carl Dean.

“I don’t want to go to bed looking like a hag with Carl,” she wrote, as if Dolly Parton could ever.

She added that she’s not worried about clogged pores, and let us all in on this secret the skincare industry definitely doesn’t want you to know: “It doesn’t matter when you clean your face, as long as you clean it once a day. 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.”

There you have it. If it’s good enough for Dolly, it should be good enough for any of us.
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones is out now.