CAN FLOWER CROWNS BE OVER?

Can flower crowns be over? Like officially? It feels like they have been slowly dying for the past year, but they seem to be hanging on by one little thread, and I think it’s time we cut it and move on with our lives. It’s not that I have some weird hatred for them, it’s just that they are starting to get more and more played out and the spirit that made them such a fun way to accessorize your festival outfit is long dead. As if that weren’t enough, there are so many more exciting ways to style your hair. Let me explain.

At every festival I go to there is always at least one person in a flower crown. Always. They are probably wearing cut off jean shorts and some sort of flowy t-shirt, looking a little lost. Yeah, the number of people you’ll see wearing them has gone way down, but I feel like we can all agree that one person in a flower crown is one too many.

I didn't always use to cringe when I saw a flower crown. Way back when I actually thought they were a really cool way to dress down a look and make it feel a little less formal. There was also something nice about the nostalgia of hanging out outside in the summer and trying to make little crowns out of the flowers from your garden.

I think we can agree that we were all here for the trend until it started to get overexposed. My dislike for them began when they began appearing on the covers of magazines, and everyone started trying to make some money off of them. I mean you can still find services that will make flower crowns and sell them for upwards of 45 dollars, which is insane. There is nothing sadder than seeing something that was supposed to be a sign of being down to earth (literally, because flowers grow in the dirt) and turning it into a 'custom' experience that you charge a premium for. You can try and change my mind, but think about it, what on earth is 'free-spirited" about paying forty-five dollars for flowers.

One of the coolest things about flower crowns when they first started making a comeback was that they allowed you to bring nature and the hard to capture hippie dippy vibes that the first music festivals like Woodstock were so famous for. When you wore a flower crown, you felt like an at-one-with-mother-nature-flower-goddess. This was especially true if you, like me, like to get LIVE flowers from where ever I was and braid them together myself. The key word there is "live."

I think the final kiss of death for the flower crown was when they stopped being made with real flowers gathered by the person making them and became something you could buy at forever 21. Not that forever 21 is the problem, It’s more that forever 21 isn’t going to be forcing their employees to hand make fresh flower crowns every day, so they are going to have to be made of plastic. Plastic flowers are, let’s face it, kind of the worst. They look super tacky, and nothing is further from being a flower-power-nature-goddess than a ton of plastic that isn’t going to biodegrade in a million years and will probably end up in a landfill. It just feels like the exact opposite of the spirit that inspired people to wear flower crowns in the first place. When the spirit is dead, it seems like the whole trend should be too. Otherwise, it’s just straight up depressing.

Have I mentioned how played out they are? Even if I have, it is worth repeating a little louder for those in the back who still want to wear one to Coachella next year. THEY ARE PLAYED OUT. We have been there, done that, took all of the Instagram pictures, and it is time to move on. If that isn’t enough to dissuade you, just think about the fact that if you are wearing a flower crown you can be confident that no one is going to come up and compliment you on the originality of your look.

There are so many other ways you could be accessorizing your festival outfit. You can pick up a cool headdress (just please not an offensive one), or maybe wear a colorful wig. You can also try incorporating hair jewelry into your look, or maybe try a pair of pompoms or furry ears. Like I keep saying, there is a lot of room to experiment without needing to even think about flower crowns. If you are really in need of inspiration, try looking through the results for "festival hair" on Pinterest.

In summary, there is nothing original about flower crowns, if they aren’t made with real flowers, then there is ZERO point to wearing one in the first place, and honestly, there is just so much more you could do for your look then throwing a cheap plastic wreath on your head.

So can we please say, Adios to our flower crowns? It was fun while it lasted, but now it’s time to move on to better things.