Media Kit · 2027
80 million Americans live with hair loss. Until now, not one event was built for them.
Crowned At Sea™ is the first cruise experience created entirely for the hair and wig community — enthusiasts, creators, and the brands they've been watching on their phones — all on the same ship, for four nights in April 2027.
80M+
Americans living with hair loss or thinning
American Hair Loss Association
$7.5B
Global wig & hair replacement market in 2024, growing to $12.6B by 2034
GM Insights, 2024
81%
Of women say hair thinning negatively affected their confidence and self-image
Market Research, 2024
50%+
Of women will experience noticeable hair loss in their lifetime
American Academy of Dermatology
The Event
April 5–9, 2027
Sail Dates · 4 Nights
Oasis of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International
300–400 Guests
Year One · Founding Voyage
crownedatsea.com
Cabins Now Booking
Event Founders
Co-Founder, Crowned At Sea™
Crystal Phillips
Founder, The Crowned Series
Crystal Phillips spent years as a boutique luxury travel agent — building group cruise experiences, filling ships, and learning exactly what it takes to move a community from online to in-person. She knows the cruise industry from the inside. When she couldn't find a hair community event worth attending, she stopped looking and started building. Crystal locked in Oasis of the Seas, assembled a founding talent circle, and opened cabin sales — all before most founders would have written a business plan. She is the architect of the model and the momentum behind it.
Co-Founder, Crowned At Sea™
Lance Jensen
Co-Founder, Crowned At Sea™
Lance Jensen wore hats for years. Then caps. Then fibers. Like so many people with hair loss, he found every creative way to not talk about it. The right stylist changed everything — a hair system gave him back something he hadn't realized he'd lost. Now destigmatization is his mission. As co-founder of Crowned At Sea™ and Crystal's friend of 26 years, Lance knows the vulnerability of hair loss firsthand — and he's putting that experience into building a space where women never have to hide, explain, or apologize for their hair.
I was buying wig after wig on TikTok — completely clueless, hoping the next one would finally be the one. I kept looking for a real place to figure it out. Not a salon. Not a trade show with a wig booth in the corner. Somewhere I could see it, feel it, try it — with people who actually got it. That place didn't exist anywhere. So I thought: why not me? Why not now? And here we are.
Crystal Phillips · Co-Founder, Crowned At Sea™
People say "it's just hair." But when it's happening to you, it doesn't feel like just hair. Your hair can be a part of your identity, your confidence, how you recognize yourself in the mirror. I wanted to take some of the fear and sadness out of wearing alternative hair and replace it with excitement. I want women to realize that wearing a wig doesn't mean you've lost who you are — sometimes it gives you the freedom to discover a whole new side of yourself. That is exactly why saying yes to Crowned At Sea™ was so easy for me.
Melanie Taylor · Co-Founder, MELT Beauty Company
Founding Talent & Brands
Founding Talent
Founding Mental Health Specialist
Alison Mann, LCSW
Licensed Psychotherapist & Hair Loss Coach — Authentically You Therapy · Aid by Ali
Alison Mann is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and one of the country's most recognized voices on the psychological experience of hair loss. Through her therapy practice, Authentically You Therapy, and her coaching platform, Aid by Ali, she supports people navigating the anxiety, body image shifts, and identity questions that come with losing hair. She volunteers with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation and the Children's Alopecia Project, and has been featured in NPR, Self Magazine, Health.com, and The Everygirl. Her presence on Crowned At Sea™ is not a wellness add-on. It's a statement about what this community actually needs — and has never had before.
Founding Brands
Founding Brand
Julie Todd
President & Founder — Infinite Tresses · Houston, TX
Julie Todd founded Infinite Tresses from personal experience — after facing hair loss herself, she built a Houston-based brand that has become one of the most trusted names in women's synthetic wigs. Where Julie goes, her community follows — literally. Infinite Tresses affiliates are joining the voyage alongside her, bringing an entire network of wig professionals, educators, and enthusiasts aboard Oasis of the Seas. It's not a brand with a booth. It's a brand that moves as one.
Founding Brand
Mel Taylor & Rob Pangaro
Founders — MELT Beauty Company · Philadelphia, PA
Mel Taylor and Rob Pangaro built MELT Beauty Company on one belief: that every person navigating hair loss deserves access to premium products, real education, and a community that actually gets it. Based in Philadelphia, MELT has become a destination brand in the hair and wig space — offering synthetic and human hair wigs, cosmetics, and dedicated support for those experiencing medical-related hair loss. Their community isn't just customers. They're advocates.
Why It Matters
Hair loss is one of the most common experiences in the country. It affects more than 80 million Americans — men and women, young and old, across every background. It touches how people move through the world, how they see themselves in the mirror, whether they walk into a room with their head up.
What social media did was give people permission to talk about it. WigTok. HairTok. Wig styling tutorials. Alopecia communities. These aren't beauty trends — they're millions of people who found each other online and never had anywhere to go in real life.
Crowned At Sea™ changes that. It's the first experience to gather every corner of the women’s hair community — wigs, extensions, alternative hair — under one roof. Or rather, one deck. The voyage kicks off in the theater with a welcome panel, then leans into self-help sessions, care and maintenance workshops, and 1:1 consultations to help each guest find the right wig or alternative hair look for them. Four nights of programming built around how this community actually wants to exist: together, in full.
And for the first time, there's a licensed psychotherapist in the room. Not as an afterthought. As a founding member.
$1.4B
U.S. wig and hair replacement market in 2024 — a community with real spending power and no experiential home.
55%
Of women experiencing hair loss say it makes them feel older. The psychological weight of hair loss is well-documented — and largely unaddressed by the event industry.
Year 1.
This is the founding voyage. 300–400 guests. Cabins are booking now — the people who show up first will shape what this becomes.
About The Crowned Series
The event industry has spent decades ignoring entire communities. The Crowned Series exists to fix that. Founded by Crystal Phillips in Phoenix, Arizona, The Crowned Series is an events and entertainment company with one mandate: build the experiences that should have existed years ago — for the people the industry never bothered to count. Crowned At Sea™ is the first. A full ship is the finish line.
Story Angles
Pitchable angles for print, broadcast, podcast, and digital
01
80 Million Americans. Zero Events. Until Now.
For generations, hair loss was treated as something to hide — not something to gather around. The wigs, the extensions, the alternative hair: worn privately, never publicly claimed. Then social media changed something. Creators began showing their installs, their routines, the real life behind the "perfect" look — and audiences built overnight. But when those community members looked for a place to meet in person, there was nothing. Not a conference, not a convention, not a cruise. Crowned At Sea™ is the first event built specifically for this community — not a beauty expo with a wig booth in the corner, but a 4-night immersive experience designed around them entirely. The story isn't just that it's first. It's why it took this long — and what that says about who the beauty industry has been willing to see.
02
She Didn't Come From Events. She Came From Travel.
Crystal Phillips isn't a concert promoter or a festival organizer. She's a boutique luxury travel agent who has spent years building group cruise experiences for clients. She knows what it takes to fill a ship — and she knows the difference between a group booking and a movement. Crowned At Sea™ is what happens when someone with real access to the cruise industry decides the community she loves deserves something the industry has never built. Not a stumble. A deliberate step beyond everything she already knew how to do.
03
Hair Loss Is a Grief Experience. Why Isn't It Treated Like One?
Clinically, hair loss follows the same emotional arc as grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Licensed psychotherapist Alison Mann, LCSW joins Crowned At Sea™ as a founding member — the first time a mental health specialist has been built into an event for this community from day one. The angle: what happens when an experience stops treating hair loss as vanity and starts treating it as what it actually is.
04
They Built the Audience Online. Now They're Taking It Offline.
Three years ago, talking openly about wigs, extensions, and hair loss on social media was rare. A new wave of creators, educators, and licensed stylists built audiences of hundreds of thousands by being radically honest: showing the installs, the removal, the morning routine behind the "perfect" look. That transparency built some of the most loyal communities in the beauty space. Crowned At Sea™ is where those communities meet for the first time in person. Four nights at sea. The people who watched from their phones become the people in the room.
05
The $7.5 Billion Market That Beauty Brands Are Still Afraid to Own
The global hair loss treatment market is projected to exceed $7.5 billion — and growing fast. Major beauty brands have quietly built product lines for it, but few will put "hair loss" in a headline campaign. The stigma is good for business and bad for community. Crowned At Sea™ is the first flagship event for this market — and it wasn't built by a brand, a media company, or a private equity-backed promoter. It was built by a solo founder who asked a simple question: why doesn't this exist? For journalists covering the future of beauty, wellness, or consumer culture, this is the story of a market finally coming out of hiding.
Press Contact
Crystal Phillips
Co-Founder · Crowned At Sea™ / The Crowned Series
Lance Jensen
Co-Founder · Crowned At Sea™
Available for Interview
- Crystal Phillips — founder story, event strategy, the hair community market
- Lance Jensen — co-founder story, event operations, building a first-of-its-kind experience
- Alison Mann, LCSW — hair loss & mental health, identity, grief & body image
- Julie Todd — women's hair loss, wig culture, community-driven brand building
- Mel Taylor — alopecia & hair loss (personal experience), wig culture, human hair & synthetic hair
- Rob Pangaro — human hair, synthetic hair & beauty
- All founders available for interview — reach us at crystal@crownedatsea.com
Press Assets
- High-resolution founder & talent photography available on request
- Brand logos and event assets available on request
- Want to cover the voyage? Grab a cabin — press sails with us.
- crystal@crownedatsea.com