diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ae36eab..989c440 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
     <groupId>tsp.headdb</groupId>
     <artifactId>HeadDB</artifactId>
-    <version>2.4.3</version>
+    <version>2.4.4</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>HeadDB</name>
diff --git a/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/database/HeadDatabase.java b/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/database/HeadDatabase.java
index 25e42a9..5212ed5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/database/HeadDatabase.java
+++ b/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/database/HeadDatabase.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import org.json.simple.parser.JSONParser;
 import org.json.simple.parser.ParseException;
 import tsp.headdb.api.Head;
 import tsp.headdb.util.Log;
+import tsp.headdb.util.Utils;
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -166,8 +167,13 @@ public class HeadDatabase {
                 JSONArray array = (JSONArray) parser.parse(response.toString());
                 for (Object o : array) {
                     JSONObject obj = (JSONObject) o;
-                    UUID uuid = UUID.fromString(obj.get("uuid").toString());
-                    if (uuid.toString().length() != 36) {
+                    String rawUUID = obj.get("uuid").toString();
+
+                    UUID uuid;
+                    if (Utils.validateUniqueId(rawUUID)) {
+                        uuid = UUID.fromString(rawUUID);
+                    } else {
+                        Log.debug("UUID " + rawUUID + " is invalid. Using random one for head id: " + id);
                         uuid = UUID.randomUUID();
                     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/util/Utils.java b/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/util/Utils.java
index 2c38532..a107138 100644
--- a/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/util/Utils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/tsp/headdb/util/Utils.java
@@ -3,8 +3,23 @@ package tsp.headdb.util;
 import org.bukkit.ChatColor;
 import org.bukkit.command.CommandSender;
 
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
 public class Utils {
 
+
+    public static final Pattern UUID_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("[0-9a-fA-F]{8}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-4[0-9a-fA-F]{3}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}");
+
+    /**
+     * Validate a UUID (version 4)
+     *
+     * @param uuid UUID to be validated
+     * @return Returns true if the string is a valid UUID
+     */
+    public static boolean validateUniqueId(String uuid) {
+        return UUID_PATTERN.matcher(uuid).matches();
+    }
+
     public static void sendMessage(CommandSender sender, String message) {
         sender.sendMessage(colorize(message));
     }