<p>Nowadays, wearing flowers in one&#39;s hair no longer carries the layers of meaning once associated with the hippie community or Victorian society.</p>

<p data-start="376" data-end="1065" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Nothing evokes summer more powerfully than a delicate flower nestled gently in the hair. Amidst music festivals, this fragile accessory always brings a fresh and youthful atmosphere. On the Met Gala red carpet in May 2024, with the theme "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" and a spirit of outfits reminiscent of a garden of time, stylists cleverly incorporated this sweet accessory into the vibrant outfits of the guests.</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Zendaya wore a sparkling layered floral hat, while Elizabeth Debicki chose a hair clip with a Midsummer vibe.</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">On the streets, girls who prefer to coquette confidently walked in bow dresses, ballet flats and Sandy Liang's satin rose hair clips.</span></p>

<p data-start="1351" data-end="1696" style="text-align: justify;">According to hair historian Rachael Gibson, "Flowers are one of the earliest known forms of hair ornamentation." She notes that ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans often picked fresh flowers from their gardens to wear in their hair. "People have always wanted to adorn themselves and make themselves more beautiful. And utilising what's readily available around you is the easiest way to do that."</p>
<p data-start="1698" data-end="2136" style="text-align: justify;">Flowers also have a spiritual function. &ldquo;They can have pagan connotations,&rdquo; Gibson says. &ldquo;Depending on the belief system, they can be associated with harvest festivals.&rdquo; In Ukraine, for example, young women celebrate the summer solstice by releasing <em data-start="1938" data-end="1945">vinok</em> wreaths into rivers. The way the wreaths float on the water is believed to predict the romantic future of the person releasing them. Similarly, the ancient Romans traditionally honoured Flora, the goddess of flowers, through the festival of Floralia.</p>

<p data-start="146" data-end="733" style="text-align: justify;">Flowers are beautiful and delicate, so they naturally symbolise traditional notions of femininity. But what strengthens the connection between women and flowers is their ability to create new life. For that reason, young women in many cultures wear flowers that symbolise fertility. &ldquo;In ancient Greece, roses played that role,&rdquo; Gibson says. &ldquo;In China, brides often wear orange blossoms.&rdquo; In Roman weddings, crowns made of verbena, a sacred herb once considered an altar plant, served a similar function.</p>
<p data-start="735" data-end="1401" style="text-align: justify;">However, as Christianity spread, flowers gradually lost their prominence. Bearing the marks of pagan rituals, they lost their privilege of appearing in hair and at communal occasions. It wasn't until the Renaissance that the vitality of flowers was reawakened. Along with the layers of meaning accumulated over centuries, plants became a symbolic language for artists to add depth to their paintings. In Lorenzo Lotto's <em data-start="603" data-end="620">Venus and Cupid</em> (1525) and Titian's <em data-start="649" data-end="676">Venus and the Lute Player</em> (circa 1565), the wreaths are metaphors for love and fertility. The flourishing of gardening throughout Europe further popularised this imagery.</p>

<p data-start="1403" data-end="1909" style="text-align: justify;">By the Victorian era, <em data-start="1422" data-end="1436">floriography</em> allowed people to use plants to send coded messages that their conservative society forbade direct speech. Each flower carried a meaning; for example, lovers exchanged daisies to say "I love you"; basil &ndash; a symbol of hatred &ndash; was sent to enemies; and sweet peas were used to express gratitude.</p>
<p data-start="1911" data-end="2300" style="text-align: justify;">In the early 20th century, Edwardian women favoured the pompadour hairstyle; the "Gibson girls" wore fresh flowers behind their ears or tucked into their buns. Wide-brimmed hats were decorated with large clusters of flowers. World War II caused the indigenous people to shift from elaborate hairstyles to easier-to-maintain styles, replacing roses and lilies with simple headscarves.</p>

<p data-start="2302" data-end="3101" style="text-align: justify;">If one had to choose an enduring symbol of the counterculture and hippie spirit of the 1960s, it would be the flower in the hair. More than just decorative, flowers represented peace, love, a connection with nature, and a rejection of the rigid culture of the decade. The slogan &quot;Flower Power&quot; spearheaded anti-war protests; from Jimi Hendrix and Yoko Ono to those at Woodstock, everyone used flowers as a symbol of peace and love. This style became so widespread that simply having a few flowers in your hair was enough to identify you as a hippie. Scott McKenzie even sang in his 1967 song <em data-start="252" data-end="306">&quot;San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)&quot;</em> that if you came to San Francisco, remember to wear some flowers in your hair. The song evokes the &quot;Summer of Love,&quot; a time when tens of thousands of young people flocked to the city, carrying with them a spirit of freedom and peace.</p><p data-start="112" data-end="595" style="text-align: justify;"> The influence of the hippie lifestyle continued to permeate 1970s culture, with Stevie Nicks, the lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, and her husband, producer Lori Perry-Nicks, wearing flower crowns on stage. In the 1980s, with the rise of disco, wide, glittering shoulder pads became more prevalent in stage fashion, partially replacing the earlier floral hair ornament.</p>

<p data-start="140" data-end="485" style="text-align: justify;">Today, wearing flowers in one's hair no longer carries the same symbolic meanings associated with the hippie community or Victorian society. Nevertheless, some countries still maintain this tradition. In Polynesian islands like Tahiti, flower garlands are still used to welcome guests; in South India, jasmine garlands continue to play a ceremonial role in weddings.</p>
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<p data-start="800" data-end="1168" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="" style="text-align: justify;">In a context where consumerism dominates aesthetic preferences, people tend to choose Sandy Liang's satin floral hair clips over fresh flowers. Picking flowers is no longer as convenient or common as in agricultural societies; moreover, concerns about the blooming season are no longer present when floral hair clips can be used at any time of year.</p>
<p data-start="800" data-end="1168" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">&ldquo;People naturally tend to modernise what they&rsquo;ve seen and experienced before,&rdquo; observes Pierpaolo Lai, the stylist behind the floral-adorned updos at the Giambattista Valli Couture Spring/Summer 2024 show. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s also the appeal Gen Z feels when wearing jeans that have been around for a century.&rdquo;</span></p>
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Flowers in the Hair: A Timeless Beauty Tradition

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