The Hair Forum Guidelines
Terms, Community Rules & Privacy Notice
Last updated: 9 October 2026
1. About This Document
Welcome to The Hair Buyers Forum, part of Virgin Hair Directory.
The Forum is a place where hair buyers can discuss Virgin, Raw and Remy hair, hair extensions, wigs, vendors, products, services and their genuine purchasing experiences.
This document combines:
- the Terms and Conditions for using the Forum
- the Forum Community Rules
- the rules for reviews, recommendations and vendor discussions
- our child and young-person safety rules
- the Forum Privacy Notice
- our moderation, reporting and complaints procedures
These rules apply specifically to The Hair Buyers Forum.
They are separate from the general Virgin Hair Directory website terms, privacy notice and review policies that may apply elsewhere on VirginHairDirectory.com.
PART ONE: FORUM TERMS AND CONDITIONS
2. Who Operates the Forum
The Hair Buyers Forum is operated by:
Mo Cameron, trading as Virgin Hair Directory
Hackney, London, United Kingdom
Email: info@virginhairdirectory.com
Website: VirginHairDirectory.com
References in this document to Virgin Hair Directory, VHD, we, us or our mean the operator of Virgin Hair Directory and The Hair Buyers Forum.
3. Acceptance of These Terms
By registering for a Forum account, accessing member-only Forum features, posting content, submitting a review, replying to discussions or otherwise participating in the Forum, you agree to comply with these Terms and Community Rules.
You also acknowledge that you have read the Forum Privacy Notice contained in this document.
If you do not agree with these Terms, you must not create an account or participate in the Forum.
Reading publicly available Forum content does not necessarily require registration, although these rules may still apply to any interaction you have with the Forum.
4. Minimum Age
The minimum age for creating a Forum account is 13 years old.
This means that a 15-year-old may create an account, read reviews, participate in discussions and submit genuine reviews, subject to these Terms and our safety rules.
If you are under 18, we strongly encourage you to read these Terms with a parent, guardian or other responsible adult.
If the law in the country where you live requires parental or guardian permission for you to use the Forum or for particular processing of your personal information, you must have that permission.
Users must not provide a false age in order to gain access to the Forum.
5. Special Rules for Users Under 18
Virgin Hair Directory wants younger hair buyers to be able to learn about hair and share genuine experiences without unnecessarily exposing themselves to risk.
If you are under 18, do not publicly post:
- your home address
- your school or college
- your telephone number
- your personal email address
- your exact live location
- information showing where you can regularly be found
- passwords or account credentials
- financial or banking information
- photographs of identification documents
- information that could unnecessarily identify another child
- any private information that could put you or somebody else at risk
We strongly recommend that younger users choose a username that does not contain their full legal name.
Adults must not use the Forum to seek inappropriate private contact with children or young people.
Adults must not use the Forum to groom, exploit, intimidate, sexually communicate with or arrange inappropriate meetings with a child.
Content or behaviour presenting a risk to a child may be removed immediately and accounts may be restricted or permanently banned.
Where required by law, serious matters may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
6. What the Forum Is For
The Hair Buyers Forum exists to allow people to:
discuss hair vendors, share genuine purchasing experiences, ask questions, discuss Virgin Hair, Raw Hair and Remy Hair, talk about wigs and extensions, exchange hair-care knowledge, recommend vendors they have genuinely used, discuss poor experiences, compare products and help other hair buyers make better-informed decisions.
We want honest discussion.
We welcome positive reviews.
We welcome negative reviews.
Neither receives preferential treatment simply because it is positive or negative.
The important thing is that contributions are genuine, fair and based on real experiences.
7. Your Account
You are responsible for your Forum account.
You must provide accurate registration information where requested.
You must keep your password confidential.
You must not allow another person to use your account to impersonate you.
You must tell us if you believe somebody has gained unauthorised access to your account.
You may not create accounts for the purpose of manipulating discussions, reviews, votes, ratings, recommendations or Forum activity.
We may restrict multiple accounts where we reasonably believe they are being used deceptively or abusively.
8. Usernames and Profiles
You may use a Forum username rather than your full legal name.
Your username must not:
impersonate another person or company, falsely suggest that you represent Virgin Hair Directory, contain unlawful material, contain threats or abuse, deliberately mislead users about a commercial relationship, or be designed to deceive users about your identity or role.
Hair vendors, employees, owners, representatives, influencers and other people with commercial relationships must not pretend to be ordinary independent customers.
9. Honest Discussion
You are responsible for what you post.
You should distinguish between:
fact,
personal experience, and
opinion.
For example:
It is acceptable to say:
“The hair I received tangled badly after I washed it.”
That describes your experience.
You should be much more careful about making allegations such as:
“This company commits fraud.”
Statements alleging crime, dishonesty or other serious wrongdoing should not be made casually or without reliable supporting evidence.
Do not knowingly publish false information about another person or business.
10. Reviews and Vendor Experiences
Formal customer reviews published through the Forum or its review areas must reflect a genuine first-hand experience.
Where a review is presented as an independent customer review, the reviewer must have genuinely purchased the relevant product or service.
Virgin Hair Directory may ask for reasonable evidence of the transaction.
Evidence may include:
an invoice, receipt, order confirmation, transaction confirmation, delivery information, relevant correspondence or another reasonable form of purchase evidence.
We will never ask you to publish full card numbers, banking passwords or other unnecessary financial credentials.
Where possible, sensitive information should be redacted before evidence is supplied.
11. Full-Price Customer Reviews
Where a Forum review is presented specifically as an independent customer review, our standard is that the reviewer must have purchased the hair using their own money and must not have received the hair free of charge in return for the review.
The reviewer must not own, work for or have an undisclosed material connection with the vendor being reviewed.
If a person received a discount, free product, payment, commission, sponsorship or another incentive connected with their experience, they must clearly disclose it.
Such content may still be discussed where appropriate, but it must not be misleadingly presented as an ordinary independent customer purchase.
12. Proof of Purchase
Virgin Hair Directory may request proof where there are reasonable authenticity concerns.
Not every reviewer will automatically be asked for documentation.
Where we request verification and cannot reasonably establish that a review reflects a genuine experience, we may:
hold the review, request more information, decline to publish it, add appropriate context or remove it.
Failure to retain an old receipt does not automatically prove that a person’s experience was false.
We will consider the available information fairly.
13. Fake Reviews Are Prohibited
You must not:
create a review for a purchase that never happened, pay somebody to write a fake review, submit reviews from multiple accounts, ask friends or relatives to pretend to be customers, submit reviews on behalf of a vendor while pretending to be independent, use AI to fabricate a customer experience, create false supporting evidence, use another customer’s photographs as evidence of your own purchase, or organise coordinated review manipulation.
Fake and concealed incentivised reviews are prohibited.
14. Vendors and Business Owners
Hair vendors may participate in the Forum, but they must be transparent.
If you own, work for, represent or have a commercial relationship with a vendor being discussed, disclose that relationship.
Vendors must not:
pretend to be customers, manipulate ratings, create fake praise, submit fake competitor reviews, intimidate customers into removing genuine criticism, offer incentives for undisclosed positive reviews, threaten reviewers merely because a review is negative, or attempt to manipulate Forum discussion through multiple accounts.
Vendors may respond professionally to reviews and correct genuine factual inaccuracies.
15. Recommendations
You may recommend a vendor you genuinely like.
However, disclose any commercial relationship.
If you receive commission, payment, free products, discounts, affiliate income or another benefit from a recommendation, this must be made clear.
A recommendation must not be presented as completely independent where a material commercial relationship exists.
16. Images, Videos and Evidence
Images and videos submitted as evidence should genuinely relate to your experience.
You must not knowingly submit:
AI-generated images as proof of a real purchase, materially manipulated photographs intended to deceive users, vendor photographs presented as your own customer photographs, somebody else’s photographs without permission, or images that unlawfully reveal another person’s private information.
Ordinary cropping, resizing or adjustments that do not materially misrepresent the product are not automatically prohibited.
17. Copyright and Other People’s Content
Only upload content that you own, have permission to use, or are otherwise legally entitled to publish.
Do not copy entire articles, photographs, videos or other copyrighted content from another website and republish them without permission.
Quoting small portions for genuine discussion may sometimes be permitted by law, but you remain responsible for ensuring your use is lawful.
Copyright complaints may be sent to:
18. Licence for Content You Post
You keep ownership of the content you create.
By posting content to the Forum, you grant Virgin Hair Directory a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, format and distribute that content as reasonably necessary to operate, moderate, promote and maintain the Forum.
This licence does not transfer ownership of your original content to Virgin Hair Directory.
Where content is deleted, technical backup copies may remain temporarily until they are overwritten in accordance with normal backup processes.
19. Prohibited Content and Behaviour
The following are not permitted on the Forum:
- threats or encouragement of violence
- harassment or persistent targeted abuse
- bullying
- hate speech
- racist, sexist or other unlawful discriminatory abuse
- stalking
- doxxing or deliberately exposing private information
- sexual exploitation
- child sexual abuse material
- grooming or sexual communication with children
- terrorism content or support for terrorism
- encouragement of serious criminal activity
- scams and deliberate fraud
- malware or malicious links
- impersonation
- fake reviews
- coordinated manipulation
- spam
- unauthorised advertising
- publishing another person’s confidential information
- content encouraging serious self-harm
- unlawful sale or promotion of prohibited goods
- repeated disruption of the Forum
- attempts to circumvent suspensions or bans
This list is not exhaustive.
20. Respectful Disagreement
People will disagree.
That is allowed.
You can disagree with somebody’s opinion without attacking them personally.
Debate the hair.
Debate the vendor.
Debate the service.
Do not turn disagreement into harassment.
21. Negative Reviews Are Allowed
A vendor cannot have a genuine negative review removed simply because they dislike it.
Negative experiences are an important part of the Forum.
However, negative reviews must comply with the same authenticity and content rules as positive reviews.
We may investigate a review where there is a legitimate authenticity, privacy, legal or policy concern.
22. Reporting Content
Forum users should be able to report posts, reviews, messages or accounts that may breach these Terms.
You may use the Forum’s reporting function where available.
You may also contact:
Please include enough information for us to identify the content, such as the relevant URL, username or topic.
Reports are assessed according to the nature and seriousness of the issue.
23. Illegal or Dangerous Content
Where we become aware of content that may be illegal, present a serious risk to somebody’s safety or involve exploitation of a child, we may take urgent action.
This may include:
removing or restricting content, preserving relevant records where lawful, restricting an account, suspending or banning a user, and making disclosures to appropriate authorities where required or permitted by law.
24. Moderation
Virgin Hair Directory may moderate Forum content.
Moderation may include human review and technical anti-spam or safety measures.
We may:
approve, reject, edit formatting, request clarification, restrict visibility, temporarily hide, remove or investigate content.
We will not ordinarily alter the substance of a user’s opinion to make it more favourable or less favourable.
Where practical, substantive problems should be dealt with through removal, redaction or requesting an amendment rather than secretly changing the meaning of somebody’s contribution.
25. Account Warnings, Restrictions, Suspensions and Bans
Depending on the circumstances, we may:
issue a warning, restrict posting, temporarily suspend an account, permanently ban an account or prevent repeated re-registration.
Factors may include:
seriousness, repetition, risk to other users, deliberate deception, previous warnings and legal requirements.
Severe behaviour may result in immediate suspension or permanent removal without a prior warning.
26. Appeals and Moderation Complaints
If you believe your content or account was incorrectly moderated, you may ask us to review the decision.
Contact:
Include:
your username, the content involved, the decision you are challenging and why you believe it should be reconsidered.
We may uphold, modify or reverse the original decision.
27. Forum Complaints
Complaints concerning Forum operation, another user’s behaviour, reviews or moderation may be sent to:
Where the complaint involves alleged defamation or another serious legal issue, we may request additional information before deciding what action is appropriate.
28. Private Messages
If private messaging is enabled, private messages remain subject to these Terms.
“Private” does not mean exempt from the rules.
Do not use private messaging for:
harassment, grooming, threats, scams, unwanted sexual communication, spam or attempts to evade Forum moderation.
Where a private message is reported to us, we may review the material reasonably necessary to investigate the complaint.
29. Safety Rules for Contact Between Adults and Children
Adults must exercise particular care when communicating with users they know or reasonably believe are under 18.
Adults must not attempt to move conversations with children into inappropriate private channels, seek sexual communication, request sexual images, pressure a child to meet privately or exploit a child’s vulnerability.
Serious concerns may be escalated to relevant authorities.
30. No Professional Advice
Forum discussions represent individual user experiences.
They should not automatically be treated as professional medical, dermatological, legal, financial or other regulated advice.
Hair and scalp problems can sometimes require assessment by an appropriately qualified professional.
Virgin Hair Directory does not diagnose medical conditions through the Forum.
31. Vendor Listings and Forum Opinions
The presence of a vendor on Virgin Hair Directory does not guarantee that every buyer will have the same experience.
Forum comments belong to their individual authors unless clearly identified as an official Virgin Hair Directory statement.
Virgin Hair Directory does not automatically endorse a vendor simply because the vendor is listed or discussed.
32. Forum Availability
We aim to keep the Forum available, but we cannot guarantee uninterrupted operation.
The Forum may occasionally be unavailable because of:
maintenance, security issues, technical failures, updates or matters outside our reasonable control.
33. Changes to Forum Features
We may change, add or remove Forum features.
This may include categories, posting tools, messaging, profiles, ratings, moderation functions and other functionality.
34. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms when the Forum changes or when legal or regulatory requirements change.
The updated version will display a revised Last Updated date.
Where a change is significant, we may provide additional notice or require existing members to accept the updated Terms before continuing to use certain Forum features.
PART TWO: FORUM PRIVACY NOTICE
35. Who Is Responsible for Your Personal Information
For personal information handled through The Hair Buyers Forum, the data controller is:
Mo Cameron, trading as Virgin Hair Directory
Hackney, London, United Kingdom
Email: info@virginhairdirectory.com
36. Scope of This Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice applies specifically to personal information processed through The Hair Buyers Forum.
The general Virgin Hair Directory website may have a separate Privacy Policy covering other parts of VirginHairDirectory.com.
37. Personal Information We May Collect
Depending on how you use the Forum, we may process information including:
your username, email address, account details, password in encrypted or hashed form, profile information, approximate age or age-related information where required, Forum posts, replies, reviews, ratings, uploaded images, reports, moderation records, communications with us, private messages where relevant to Forum operation or reported misconduct, login records, IP addresses, device and browser information, security logs, cookie information and information submitted as evidence supporting a review or complaint.
We aim to collect only information reasonably necessary for the purpose involved.
38. Public Information
Forum participation is public unless a feature is clearly identified otherwise.
Your:
username, profile information you choose to make public, posts, replies, reviews, ratings and uploaded public content
may be visible to other users and potentially to people who are not registered.
Public Forum pages may also be indexed by search engines.
Think carefully before posting personal information publicly.
This is particularly important for users under 18.
39. Information You Should Not Post Publicly
Do not unnecessarily publish:
full bank details, passwords, payment credentials, government identification numbers, home addresses, private telephone numbers, private email addresses, another person’s sensitive information or other information that could create a serious privacy or security risk.
40. Why We Use Personal Information
We may process personal information in order to:
create and maintain Forum accounts, authenticate users, display Forum contributions, operate reviews and ratings, enable discussions, moderate the Forum, investigate reports, identify fake reviews or abuse, protect users, prevent spam and fraud, secure the Forum, respond to enquiries, comply with legal duties, establish or defend legal claims, improve Forum operation, maintain technical records and provide account-related communications.
41. Our Lawful Bases
Depending on the processing involved, Virgin Hair Directory may rely on:
Contract
Where processing is necessary to provide the Forum service you have requested.
Legitimate interests
Where reasonably necessary to operate, secure, moderate and improve the Forum, prevent fraud, deal with abuse and protect users, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.
Legal obligation
Where we need to process information to comply with applicable law.
Consent
Where we specifically ask for consent and consent is the appropriate legal basis.
Establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
Where relevant under applicable data protection law.
We do not treat acceptance of these Forum Terms as blanket consent to every possible use of your personal information.
42. Children’s Personal Information
The Forum permits users aged 13 and above.
Children deserve particular protection when using online services.
We aim to take a child-appropriate approach to privacy and safety.
Where a user is known or reasonably believed to be under 18, we will take this into account when deciding how information is used, displayed, retained or moderated.
We encourage child users to minimise the personal information included in public profiles and posts.
43. Age Information
We may request age or age-range information where reasonably necessary to:
apply age-appropriate protections, comply with legal obligations, determine access to features or protect children.
We aim not to collect more age-verification information than reasonably necessary.
44. Special Category Information
Forum users should avoid unnecessarily publishing highly sensitive personal information.
This may include information concerning:
health, race or ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation or sex life.
If a user voluntarily publishes sensitive information, that does not mean Virgin Hair Directory will use it for unrelated purposes.
We may need to process sensitive information where necessary to handle serious safety, discrimination or legal complaints and where an appropriate legal condition applies.
45. Review Verification Information
Where we ask for purchase evidence, we use it for purposes such as:
checking authenticity, investigating a complaint, preventing fake reviews and maintaining the integrity of the Forum.
Users should redact unnecessary information.
We do not need your full payment-card number or online banking password.
Verification documents are not intended for public display unless you deliberately publish them yourself.
46. Moderation Information
We may keep records concerning:
reported content, moderation decisions, warnings, suspensions, bans, appeals, complaints and relevant evidence.
These records help us enforce Forum rules consistently, protect users and manage disputes.
47. Technical and Security Information
When you use the Forum, technical systems may automatically record information such as:
IP address, browser type, device information, login activity, server logs and security events.
This information may be used for security, troubleshooting, anti-spam, fraud prevention and Forum administration.
48. Cookies
The Forum may use cookies or similar technologies.
These may include:
strictly necessary cookies used for login, account security and core Forum functions, preference cookies, and optional analytics or similar technologies where enabled.
Where UK law requires consent for optional cookies, they should not be activated until the appropriate consent has been obtained.
Cookie choices may be managed through the Virgin Hair Directory cookie-consent system where available.
49. Account and Service Emails
We may send necessary Forum communications such as:
account verification, password reset messages, security notifications, replies or mentions where you enable those notifications, moderation notices and important changes to the Forum.
These are service communications rather than general advertising.
50. Marketing
Marketing communications are separate from the operation of your Forum account.
Where consent is required, you should be given a separate choice about receiving marketing.
Refusing marketing must not prevent you from using ordinary Forum features.
Users may unsubscribe from marketing communications where applicable.
We do not treat agreement to these Forum Terms as automatic marketing consent.
51. Children’s Data and Marketing
We will not deliberately use a child’s Forum profile to create targeted advertising based on sensitive personal characteristics.
The best interests and privacy of younger users will be taken into account when assessing optional data uses.
52. Who We May Share Information With
We may use carefully selected service providers where necessary to operate the Forum.
Categories may include:
website hosting providers, WordPress and Forum technology providers, email-delivery services, security and anti-spam services, backup providers, analytics providers where used, professional advisers and authorities where disclosure is legally required or necessary for safety.
Service providers should only receive information reasonably necessary for their function.
53. Vendors
We do not routinely hand private reviewer information to a vendor simply because the vendor dislikes a review.
Where a vendor submits a complaint, we may investigate.
Information may be disclosed where there is a valid legal basis or legal requirement.
Public Forum information is, of course, already visible according to the Forum’s normal settings.
54. Legal Requests
We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:
comply with a valid legal obligation, respond to lawful requests from authorities, investigate serious illegal behaviour, protect someone’s safety, establish or defend legal rights or comply with a court order.
We will not voluntarily disclose more personal information than reasonably necessary.
55. International Processing
Some technology providers used to operate the Forum may process information outside the United Kingdom.
Where UK data-protection law requires safeguards for an international transfer, we will use an appropriate lawful transfer mechanism.
56. How Long We Keep Information
We do not intend to keep personal information indefinitely merely because we can.
Retention depends on the type of information and why we hold it.
Account information may normally be retained while your account remains active.
Public Forum contributions may remain after account closure where necessary to preserve the integrity of discussions, but identifying information may be removed or anonymised where appropriate.
Security, moderation and complaint records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to protect users, investigate abuse, comply with legal obligations and manage potential legal claims.
Verification documents should be kept only for as long as reasonably necessary for the relevant verification, dispute, regulatory or legal purpose.
Backups may temporarily contain information after deletion until the normal backup cycle removes or overwrites it.
57. Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures intended to protect Forum information.
However, no internet service can guarantee absolute security.
Users should use strong, unique passwords and protect their login details.
58. Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data protection law may give you rights including:
access to your personal information, correction of inaccurate information, deletion, restriction of processing, objection to certain processing, data portability where applicable and withdrawal of consent where processing is based on consent.
These rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances.
To exercise a right, contact:
59. Account Deletion
You may request closure of your Forum account.
Closing an account does not necessarily mean every historical contribution must immediately disappear.
For example, removing every post in a long discussion could make other members’ conversations unintelligible.
Where appropriate, we may anonymise historic content rather than delete an entire discussion.
Any continued processing must have an appropriate lawful basis.
60. Children’s Privacy Requests
A child may have data protection rights in their own name.
A parent or guardian may also contact us where appropriate.
We will consider the child’s age, maturity, rights, safety and applicable law when responding.
61. Data Protection Complaints
If you believe Virgin Hair Directory has handled your personal information incorrectly, contact:
Please use the subject:
Forum Data Protection Complaint
We will provide a clear way for you to raise a complaint.
We will acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days and will investigate and respond without undue delay.
If you remain dissatisfied, you may complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
62. Automated Decisions
We do not intend to make solely automated decisions through the Forum that produce legal or similarly significant effects on users without appropriate safeguards.
Automated tools may be used to assist with matters such as spam detection, security or moderation.
Where appropriate, human review may be available.
63. Changes to the Privacy Notice
We may update this Forum Privacy Notice where our processing changes or where legal requirements change.
The latest version will display the date of the most recent update.
Significant changes may be brought to registered users’ attention.
PART THREE: GENERAL LEGAL TERMS
64. Limitation of Responsibility for User Content
Forum content is created by individual users.
Virgin Hair Directory does not automatically verify every statement before publication.
We may moderate and investigate content, but we cannot guarantee that every statement posted by every member is accurate.
Users should make their own purchasing decisions.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability where liability cannot lawfully be excluded.
65. No Guarantee of Vendor Quality
Virgin Hair Directory provides information, discussion and user experiences.
We do not guarantee that a particular vendor will provide the same experience to every customer.
A positive review is not a guarantee of a future transaction.
A negative review does not automatically establish wrongdoing.
66. Our Own Reviews and Commercial Relationships
Where Virgin Hair Directory itself publishes reviews, sponsored content, gifted-product content, advertising or paid collaborations, any material commercial relationship should be disclosed appropriately.
Forum users should likewise disclose commercial relationships relevant to their recommendations.
67. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, subject to any mandatory consumer or other legal rights that apply in the country where you live.
Nothing in these Terms is intended to remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.
68. Severability
If one provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.
69. No Waiver
If Virgin Hair Directory does not immediately enforce a provision, this does not permanently waive our right to enforce it later.
70. Contact Us
Questions about these Terms, the Forum, moderation or privacy can be sent to:
The Hair Buyers Forum
Virgin Hair Directory
Operated by Mo Cameron, trading as Virgin Hair Directory
Hackney, London, United Kingdom
Email: info@virginhairdirectory.com
Website: VirginHairDirectory.com