The Brief History of Wearing Flowers in your Hair16 Images
Nothing says summer like flowers in your hair. Festivals in particular have become known for the floral hair accessory, from the peace and love hippies at Woodstock to the It-girl influencers in Palm Springs. Florence Pugh’s decision to wear a flower crown at Glastonbury this year even led some to call the British festival the new Coachella. But it’s not just been in muddy fields where flowers in hair have proven popular this year. At the Met Gala in May, where the theme was ‘The Garden of Time’, the red carpet was full of florals including adorning the heads of Zendaya and Elizabeth Debicki. Meanwhile, on the streets, the coquette girls were pairing their ribbon-covered dresses and ballet flats with satin rose hair clips from Sandy Liang.
But while wearing flowers in your hair has become a largely aesthetic pursuit, it hasn’t always been this way. From the Flower Power counterculture movement in the 1960s to the ancient Greeks, many societies throughout history have recognised them as culturally significant as well as pretty.
“Flowers are one of the earliest known hair adornments,” according to hair historian Rachael Gibson, who says that many in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome would pick fresh flowers from their gardens to accessorise themselves. “People have always sought to adorn themselves and make themselves look more beautiful. Using what you have at hand and what’s available to you is the easiest way to do that.”
Flowers served spiritual functions too. “They could be quite pagan,” Gibson says. “Depending on your beliefs, they could relate to things like harvest festivals.” In Ukraine, for example, young women would celebrate the summer solstice by tossing flower crowns – or vinoks – into the river. The way they moved on the water was believed to foretell one’s romantic future. In a similar vein, the ancient Romans honoured Flora, the goddess of flowers, in a festival called Floralia.
Beautiful and delicate, flowers are an obvious choice when it comes to representing traditional views of femininity. But what cements the connection between women and flowers is their shared ability to create new life. For this reason, young women in many cultures wear flowers that symbolise fertility. “In ancient Greece [that was represented through] roses,” says Gibson. “In China, the orange blossom was often worn by brides.” Roman weddings similarly featured floral crowns made from verbena, a holy herb that was eventually dubbed the altar plant.
Flowers fell out of favour, however, as Christianity spread. “Because they were associated with pagan festivals, people weren’t wearing them as much,” says floral artist Harriet Parry. “But there was a whole resurgence with Renaissance art.” Having accumulated myriad associations over the decades, plants became a go-to for painters looking to add symbolic value to their work. In Lorenzo Lotto’s 1525 painting “Venus and Cupid” and Titian’s “Venus and the Lute Player” from circa 1565, flower wreaths are used as emblems of fertility and love. It helped that gardening became all the rage across Europe. Suddenly, flowers were in fashion again, with brides sporting garlands and women weaving petals into their plaits.
Come the Victorian era, floriography, or the language of flowers, became extremely popular. The practice involved using plants to send coded messages that couldn’t be spoken aloud in their straight-laced society. “Each flower had a symbol,” Parry explains. “So then it became more about giving them to people,” rather than wearing them. Lovers exchanged daisies instead I-love-yous; basils, a symbol of hate, were sent to enemies; and sweet peas were used as a token of thanks.
Later, in the early 20th century, Edwardian women embraced pompadour style hair. Gibson girls tucked fresh blooms behind their ears to pushed them into their chignons. Wide-brimmed hats became a wardrobe staple, some of which were adorned with big, bold floral arrangements. World War II, however, brought a shift from elaborate to low-maintenance hairstyles, trading roses and lilies for simple scarves.
If there’s one enduring symbol of the 1960s counterculture and hippie movement it would be wearing flowers in your hair. So much more than just decoration, the flowers represented peace and love, a connection to nature and a rejection of repressed, uptight culture of the decade that preceded it. The slogan ‘Flower Power’ fronted anti-war protests and everyone, from Jimi Hendrix, Yoko Ono and the average Woodstock attendee, used flowers as a shorthand for peace and love, a battle cry against brutality. The style became so synonymous with the movement that it was all you needed to convey your allegiances. “If you’re going to San Francisco / Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair,” Scott McKenzie sang in his 1967 hippie anthem which became the song of the infamous Summer of Love and is seen as being responsible for so many people flooding to the city that year.
Traces of the hippie lifestyle were felt throughout the 1970s, with Stevie Nicks and Lori Perry-Nicks wearing flower crowns on stage. Finally, in the 1980s, disco fever and shoulder pads stole the show. Today, we don’t wear flowers for the same reasons the hippies or the Victorians did. Some countries, however, have kept the tradition alive to honour their heritage. Polyenesian islands, such as Tahiti, continue to welcome visitors with flower crowns, while jasmine garlands remain a staple in South Indian weddings. Through these simple, yet sacred acts, they reconnect with their ancestors, finding a sense of belonging in the depths of their cultures.
“I don’t think we’re connected to plants and flowers in the way that we were in the past and in the way certain parts of the world are,” says Gibson. “We don’t have access to nature in the same way. Now, you can go to the garden centre to buy plants that aren’t native to this country.” In the age of consumerism, we’re more likely to turn to Sandy Liang’s satin petal scrunchies than fresh flowers. Picking plants is not as convenient or as common as it was in ancient times, plus why worry about which plants are in season when you have Emi Jay’s plumeria claw clips to wear all year long?
“It is part of our nature to [modernise] what has already been seen and experienced in the past,” says Pierpaolo Lai, the hairstylist behind the sleek flower-adorned updos at the Giambattista Valli SS24 Couture show. “It’s the same fascination that Gen Z feels when wearing a pair of jeans that have passed through more than a century of history.”
Though flowers may not be as symbolic as they used to be, they remain a reliable accessory for anyone looking to up the ante on their everyday looks. As Gibson points out, “it’s important to remember that in history, people sometimes just wanted to do things that looked nice in the same way that we do. There’s no shame in that.”
