Word Of Mouth only lists hair and beauty providers we have checked ourselves. This page explains exactly what that means, what it does not mean, and who does the checking. We would rather you trust us because you can see how we work than because we asked you to.
When a provider is listed, at least one of these is true, and the listing shows you which:
They have publicly committed to our standard, including pricing that is not based on gender and not refusing or treating someone differently because of who they are.
At least one person from the LGBTQ+ community has told us, independently, about a real experience of being treated well there.
Someone from Word Of Mouth has looked into how they actually work: their pricing, how they handle a new booking, their portfolio, and has spoken with them where needed.
The most trusted listings have all three. Where a listing has fewer, you will see that too. We do not hide how much, or how little, stands behind a name.
We are new, and we are small. There are things we cannot promise yet, and we would rather say so.
Providers do not add themselves and appear automatically. Someone is either recommended to us by the community, or gets in touch, and then we check them before anything goes live. We talk to them, we look at how they work, and we ask them to commit to our standard. Only then do they go on the site.
Common Ground is run by a small team of people from the LGBTQ+ community. The same people who set the standard are the ones who check it. [Once secured: We are supported by [named organisations], who help us stay accountable.]
A community vouch is a confirmation from someone in the LGBTQ+ community, who we can identify, who reached us independently of the provider, describing a real personal experience of being treated well. If a recommendation comes through the provider themselves, we treat it as the provider's own word, not as an independent vouch.