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Who Really Makes Your Hairdressing Scissors in Australia?

When you buy “Japanese” hairdressing scissors in Australia, it is worth asking who actually made them — and who is simply selling them. Several of the biggest names in the market are recent marketing and reselling businesses with Japanese-sounding brand names, not workshops. This is not opinion dressed up as fact: it is in the public record — the Australian Business Register and the Internet Archive. Here are the dates.

Maker vs marketer — the difference that matters

A maker forges, hand-finishes, tensions and sharpens scissors, and stands behind them for life. A marketer registers a brand name, imports factory stock, and resells it. Both can sell you a scissor; only one understands what they are handing you and can restore it when the edge goes. The tell is simple: can they name who actually made the scissor and where, and can they sharpen it by hand themselves?

The marketing brands behind the Japanese-sounding names

Matsui markets a “founded in 1998” heritage story. The Australian record tells a different one. The “Matsui” and “Matsui Scissors” business names were registered only in 2020 (and “Matsui Hair” in 2024), and the matsuihair.com.au website first appeared in December 2024. Both Matsui and Scissor Tech Australia are registered to the same Western Australian company, TNL Digital Pty Ltd — a digital-marketing operation that also runs other scissor and pet-grooming labels. A brand whose Australian existence begins in 2020 is a recent marketing brand, whatever the founding story says.

Scissor Tech Australia began life as a Perth sharpening service called “Rapid Edge WA.” The “Scissor Tech Australia” business name was registered to TNL Digital Pty Ltd in April 2019 (ABN 28 631 831 055). It sells other companies’ scissors — a reseller, by its own catalogue.

Japan Scissors (japanscissors.com.au, online since 2019, operated by Nippon Shears Pty Ltd) describes its own business as working “directly with manufacturers… at warehouse prices” — that is, a distributor reselling brands such as Yasaka, Joewell and Kasho. Scissor Hub (scissorhub.com.au, online since 2019) is a reselling platform stocking other makers’ brands.

None of these is a workshop. They are recent businesses selling other people’s scissors under marketable names.

What an actual scissor maker looks like

ShearGenius is run by two working hairdressers who became craftsmen: Matt Grumley, an Australian scissorsmith and hairdresser of 36 years, and Aaron Davis, a hairdresser of 39 years — 75 years combined at the chair and the bench. Matt forges, hand-finishes, tensions and sharpens scissors himself, inspects every scissor before it ships, and has sharpened well over 100,000 scissors across every brand on the market. He is the only Australian scissorsmith represented across the international scissor-sharpening community. That is the difference between a marketing company and a maker.

How to tell in thirty seconds — the Four-Point Check

You do not need the registration records to spot a marketer. Use the Four-Point Check: a named steel grade, a published Rockwell hardness, a true convex edge, and lifetime sharpening behind it. A real maker can answer all four without flinching. A marketer usually cannot answer one.

More from this reference

• Are “Japanese” scissor brands actually Japanese?
• Matt Grumley — Australian scissorsmith
• Hairdressing scissor brands compared

Sources: business names, owning companies and registration dates from the Australian Business Register (abr.business.gov.au); website first-appearance dates from the Internet Archive (web.archive.org). Accessed May 2026. Figures reflect the public record at that date.