Flower Crowns: From Fairy to Functional

Ahh…flower crowns. I have a love-hate relationship with these fanciful hair accessories. On one hand, they’re really pretty, especially for spring or if you love flowers which, come on, who doesn’t? But on the other hand, they are near impossible to style if you aren’t wearing a costume, going to a festival (hello, Coachella), or are just a complete hippie. So how can you get your money’s worth out of these fairy ­­adornments? I’ve rounded up five alternative uses for flower crowns to help you do just that. 🙂

Spice up your floppy hat. Obviously this particular flower crown is very big—and the most difficult of mine to style—but because of its ribbon tie (see below), it can easily be wrapped around a hat for some extra color. If you have just a classic headband, you can cut it and tie on some ribbon to achieve a similar look. Believe it or not, I actually did wear this bold hat for a day of exploring a small town in Montana. But I do realize this look takes some guts to rock, so that’s why a smaller flower headband would work better for the stylish faint-of-heart. If you’re heading to the Kentucky Derby or a nice brunch though, this is your look. 😉

Add some sass to your purse. If you have the right purse and the right headband, you can wrap your flower crown around your bag for a special touch. My headband fit perfectly around this little crossbody from Charming Charlie, and I love that it added some additional red to the outfit. Read the full post to see more.

Decorate your bun. This is a super easy way to use dainty flower crowns. Just throw your hair up in a perfectly disheveled messy bun (easier said than done), wrap the crown around once or twice (being sure to strategically cover any elastic or tags), and pin down with a few bobby pins (pointing into the bun, so you can’t see them). Viola! A stylish way to add some color and pretty flowers to your hair without looking like you live in a forest under a toadstool with a chipmunk as your neighbor. (You can check out more of this look here.)

Wear it as a regular headband. So, I didn’t count this at the beginning of my post when I said 4 alternative uses because obviously, this isn’t an additional use. With that said, there are a few tips for how to wear a flower crown as just a good ole flower crown:

• Wear a boho outfit to better fit the style of the headband
• Wear it on the top of your head rather than across your forehead
• Tie in the same colors as the headband elsewhere in your outfit so it doesn’t stand out a ton
• Wear the front of your hair back in some sort of twists or braids to better integrate the headband into your hair, or experiment with layering the braids over the flower crown. This makes it look less like it was just plopped on the top of your head!
• Check out the rest of this outfit post right here

Rock it as a choker. A cute and trendy way to style a flower crown is to wear it as a choker. In these pics, I wore it less as a choker and more as a statement necklace/collar thing to complement my turtle neck, but either works. The only issue is tying it down. When I tried this headband on as a choker with a different top, I tied the back into a little knot, wrapped the excess elastic around that knot, and wore my hair down to cover it up. A little more complicated, but definitely doable! See more here.

Belt it, gurl. Okay, so I didn’t actually wear an outfit with a flower crown as a belt (that’s why there are no pics of this option), but I still thought I’d mention it. You would definitely need a headband that fastens with ribbon, like the first one in this post, with bigger scale flowers. I don’t have a dress that matched the first headband, so that’s the main reason I didn’t try it! I definitely think it could be done, though. 🙂

Hopefully now you have some ideas to get more use out of those flower crowns that you’ve only worn once because you bought them to look all festival chic and what-not. I get it. I’ve been there.

Be sure to let me know if you end up trying any of these ideas or if you have any of your own. I’d love to know! Especially since I’ve somehow amassed a collection of 4 flower crowns…that is definitely 3 (or maybe even 4) too many.

Have a wonderful Wednesday and thank you so much for stopping by today! Oh, and the answer to Monday’s Ernest Exposed post: little Ernest is hiding in the 7^th, 9^th, and 12^th pictures from the top. He’s chilling on the rock on the left side of the pic.

Miles of smiles,

Grace