Privacy Policy

PRIVACY STATEMENT
 
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SECTION 1 - WHAT DO WE DO WITH YOUR INFORMATION?
 
When you purchase something from our store, as part of the buying and selling process, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address.
When you browse our store, we also automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating system.
Email marketing (if applicable): With your permission, we may send you emails about our store, new products and other updates. 

SMS marketing (if applicable): By clicking SIGN UP NOW, you agree to receive marketing text messages from Tegen Accessories at the number provided, including messages sent by autodialer. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. Reply HELP for help or STOP to cancel. 

SECTION 2 - CONSENT
 
How do you get my consent?
When you provide us with personal information to complete a transaction, verify your credit card, place an order, arrange for a delivery or return a purchase, we imply that you consent to our collecting it and using it for that specific reason only.
If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, like marketing, we will either ask you directly for your expressed consent, or provide you with an opportunity to say no.
 
How do I withdraw my consent?
If after you opt-in, you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, for the continued collection, use or disclosure of your information, at anytime, by contacting us at info@tegenaccessories.co.uk or mailing us at:

TA and MHT Online Ltd

14 Tichborne Street, Brighton, BN1 1UR

 

SECTION 3 - DISCLOSURE

 
We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so or if you violate our Terms of Service.
 
SECTION 4 - SHOPIFY
 
Our store is hosted on Shopify Inc. They provide us with the online e-commerce platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you.
Your data is stored through Shopify’s data storage, databases and the general Shopify application. They store your data on a secure server behind a firewall.
 
Payment:
If you choose a direct payment gateway to complete your purchase, then Shopify stores your credit card data. It is encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. After that is complete, your purchase transaction information is deleted.
All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers.
For more insight, you may also want to read Shopify’s Terms of Service here or Privacy Statement here.
 
SECTION 5 - THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
 
In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us.
However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions.
For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you can understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers.
In particular, remember that certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located a different jurisdiction than either you or us. So if you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, then your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located.
As an example, if you are located in Canada and your transaction is processed by a payment gateway located in the United States, then your personal information used in completing that transaction may be subject to disclosure under United States legislation, including the Patriot Act.
Once you leave our store’s website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our website’s Terms of Service.
 
Links
When you click on links on our store, they may direct you away from our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.
 
SECTION 6 - SECURITY
   
To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.
If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored with a AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.
 
SECTION 7 - COOKIES
 
Here is a list of cookies that we use. We’ve listed them here so you that you can choose if you want to opt-out of cookies or not.
_session_id, unique token, sessional, Allows Shopify to store information about your session (referrer, landing page, etc).
_shopify_visit, no data held, Persistent for 30 minutes from the last visit, Used by our website provider’s internal stats tracker to record the number of visits
_shopify_uniq, no data held, expires midnight (relative to the visitor) of the next day, Counts the number of visits to a store by a single customer.
cart, unique token, persistent for 2 weeks, Stores information about the contents of your cart.
_secure_session_id, unique token, sessional
storefront_digest, unique token, indefinite If the shop has a password, this is used to determine if the current visitor has access.
 
 
SECTION 8 - AGE OF CONSENT
 
By using this site, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence and you have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.
 
SECTION 9 - CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
 
We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.
If our store is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we may continue to sell products to you.
 
QUESTIONS AND CONTACT INFORMATION
 
You can access all personal information that we have about you here. If you would like to: correct, amend or delete any personal information we have, register a complaint, or simply want more information, please contact us.

A Note From The Founder

This week, I turned 40. And as I sat with a cup of coffee reflecting on everything that has brought me here, I kept coming back to the same thought: TEGEN Accessories turns 14 this year too. We grew up together, this business and I.

So I wanted to take a moment, properly, for the first time, to share the story of how TEGEN came to be. Because behind every product you have ever ordered, every clip that has held your hair together on a busy morning, is a journey that began on an ordinary morning that turned out to be anything but.

The Day Everything Changed

I was 25, a few weeks shy of my 26th birthday, when the owners of the company I worked for came into the shop one morning, closed the door, and told me the company had gone into administration. My first thought wasn't, "What do I do now?" It was “How do I save the Brighton shop?”

I had been managing Jaffa Hair, a well-known shop in Brighton's famous Lanes, and I loved it. The colleagues had become genuine friends, the regulars felt like community, and the products (French handmade hair accessories, many from family-run suppliers with centuries of heritage) were unlike anything you could find anywhere else. Customers would tell us that all the time: "I've never come across anything like this anywhere else." We heard it so often that we stopped being surprised, but we never stopped being proud.

The business had been brought down by two pressures at once: the Canterbury branch was struggling with its high running costs, and wholesale sales had taken a hit as some clients switched to cheaper, China-made products.

Those French accessories couldn't just disappear. France has been crafting hair accessories since the 1600s. One of our main suppliers is a family business founded in 1892. There is a reason they have endured: they are simply, genuinely, the best in the world. Losing access to them felt unthinkable.

Building Something Beautiful

Over the months that followed, Adam and I refurbished and rebranded the shop into TEGEN Accessories. Because we couldn't afford to close during the day, we did most of the work late into the night, fitting it around trading hours. It was exhausting, but it was also exciting. This is where the boutique feel we had always wanted was finally born: a space that did the beautiful products proper justice. TEGEN is a Cornish word meaning "jewel" or "ornament," and, being Cornish myself, it felt exactly right for a business built around beautiful things. Our very first logo had Pretty Little Things as a tagline, a nod to that meaning, though we quietly dropped it when we realised it didn't quite capture everything we stood for.

Once the boutique felt like the kind of place our products deserved to live in, we turned our attention to the next enormous task: the website. With help from the team, we spent almost a year writing product descriptions, photographing everything, and slowly building what became the first version of the TEGEN Accessories website on Shopify, the same platform you shop on today.

I remember the small kindnesses of those early days vividly. The neighbouring shops in the Lanes rallied around us. One of them even let us add our parcels to their Royal Mail collection before we had our own business account set up. That's what community looks like.

The Team That Made TEGEN

Over the years, TEGEN grew and so did the people around me.

Brighton is lucky to have two universities, and the students who took part-time jobs in the shop brought so much energy and talent. Some of them went on to work with me full-time after graduating. The shop team packed orders, answered customer queries, advised people in person on what would work for their hair type, and helped build something that was far bigger than any of us could have managed alone.

We expanded the range to include bridal collections and fascinators for weddings and race days, and became something of a destination for Ascot hats. I loved that side of the business deeply. It drew on my degree in Theatre and Art, and the time I had spent working in costume jewellery and bridal wear. Helping someone find the perfect thing to wear to a wedding or a big occasion is genuinely joyful.

One person I have to mention is Sophia, our Customer Care Manager, who is currently on maternity leave with her second baby. Sophia and I worked together at Jaffa Hair almost eighteen years ago now. She left briefly to work at a jeweller's, and then came back. She told me she missed the team and the customers. That says everything, I think, about what TEGEN has always tried to be.

Over the years, some of the people who have worked at TEGEN have become lifelong friends. I have been to their weddings and met their children, and looking back at the photos now, I feel incredibly lucky to have shared so much of life with such wonderful people.

The Pandemic and a New Chapter

When COVID-19 arrived in 2020, we closed the shop and, as it turned out, we never reopened it.

The team adapted brilliantly. Customer service moved entirely online, and our customers (many of whom had been shopping with us for years) stayed loyal throughout. We are so grateful for that.

The pandemic also brought into focus something we had been quietly noticing for a while: footfall had been declining year on year, and the costs of running a physical shop only ever went in one direction. We decided to put everything into building the best online hair accessories destination we could.

It was the right decision, even if it was a bittersweet one.

That said, we never stopped loving welcoming customers in person. Our offices are now centrally located in Brighton's North Laine on Tichborne Street, and you are always welcome to pop in. We have appointments available to book on our website, but walk-ins are always welcome too.

We grew the team to ten people, a mix of graduates and talented young people who brought fresh ideas and real dedication. I have loved watching every single one of them grow. Some have gone on to their dream jobs. One has started their own business. Watching that happen is one of the things I'm most proud of.

Forty, and Grateful

In November 2024, I became a mum for the first time. My daughter Clara is, as it turns out, wonderfully bright and full of personality, and I suspect she and TEGEN Accessories will grow up together, just as TEGEN and I did.

TEGEN will always be my first baby. Fourteen years in, I still don't grow tired of it: the products, the problem-solving, the customers, the suppliers who have become friends over years of working together, the team who show up every day and care.

Over the years, we have been recognised for our marketing and shortlisted for awards, including Best Retailer, Best E-Commerce Company, Best Customer Service, and Best Overall Company. I have also worked with business coaches who have helped me shape the kind of company I always wanted to build. None of it happened overnight, and none of it happened alone.

Thank You

Which brings me to the thing I most want to say.

None of this (not the reopened shop, not the website, not the team, not the fourteen years) would have been possible without you.

You are the customers who took a chance on a 26-year-old with no bank loan and a borrowed mail account. You are the ones who told your friends, who came back again and again, who trusted us to find something beautiful for your hair. Many of you have been with TEGEN since the very beginning. Some of you are finding us for the first time right now.

Either way: thank you. Thank you for supporting a female-founded business. Thank you for valuing the craft and heritage behind what we sell. And thank you for letting me do something I genuinely love, every single day.

Here's to the next fourteen years. I wonder where they'll take us.

With love and gratitude,

Tegen x

Founder, TEGEN Accessories