GENOSYS
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HR³ MATRIX Medi Scalp Shampoo α · 300 ml
The one in the range with caffeine at a real dose.
A full 1.000% caffeine - a hundred times what is in the hair tonic from this same line. Menthol at 1.120% with menthyl lactate on top of it is more menthol than anything else GENOSYS makes. No sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate, glycerin at 2.753% so a thorough cleanse does not leave the scalp tight, and a batch pH of 5.6.
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Free delivery over AED 1,000 · Dispatched from Dubai
1.000%
Caffeine
1.120%
Menthol, the most in the range
5.6
Batch pH, acid side of neutral
0
Sulfates, and nil microbial count
The reason to buy this one
Caffeine appears on the ingredient list of three products in this line. Only one of them carries it at a dose worth the words. If caffeine is what brought you here, it is worth seeing the three side by side before you choose.
| Medi Scalp Shampoo α - this one | 1.000% | 10,000 ppm |
|---|---|---|
| Hair Tonic α | 0.001% | 10 ppm |
| Scalp Peeling α | - | not in the formula |
A hundredfold difference, from the same brand, in the same line, with caffeine named on both cartons. That is the sort of thing an ingredient list will never tell you. It also does not mean the tonic is a bad product - it does other things well, and all three of its actives are measured on the batch - but if you came for caffeine, this is the bottle.
The working formula
A shampoo has about ninety seconds of contact and then it goes down the drain, so the things that matter are the cleansing system, what stops it stripping, and whatever is present in enough quantity to survive the rinse.
Sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate
14.100%
The primary surfactant, and a thorough one. Worth being precise about the naming: an olefin sulfonate is not a sulfate, so there is no sodium lauryl sulfate or laureth sulfate here. That does not make it a mild, low-foaming cleanser - it makes it a sulfate-free cleanser that still cleans hard.
Coco-betaine, with two glucosides
5.250% + 0.400%
Coco-betaine at 5.250%, then coco-glucoside at 0.240% and decyl glucoside at 0.160%. These soften the primary surfactant and build the foam, which is why the lather is dense rather than squeaky.
Menthol, with menthyl lactate
1.120% + 0.080%
The most menthol in the range - roughly three and a half times the hair tonic. Menthol is the cold hit in the shower, menthyl lactate is what you still feel ten minutes after towelling off.
Caffeine
1.000%
A full one per cent. Present at a hundred times the concentration in the tonic, and the honest reason to choose this shampoo over another.
Glycerin, with sorbitol
2.753% + 0.210%
Humectants at a real dose for something that gets rinsed off. This is what stops a 14% surfactant load leaving the scalp tight, and it is why the shampoo reads comfortable rather than stripping.
Citric acid
0.300%
Holds the formula on the acid side of neutral. The batch tested at pH 5.6, which suits scalp skin and hair better than an alkaline wash.
Mistletoe extract, then malt
0.050% + 0.028%
At 500 ppm and 280 ppm, the only two botanicals in a long list that are present in amounts worth naming.
Polyquaternium-67
0.200%
A conditioning polymer, which is what stops a strong cleanse leaving hair tangled and hard to comb.
Proportion
The English carton opens with "powered by caffeine, biotin, and patented complexes". One of those three is at a real dose. Here is the rest of what the ingredient list promotes, with the actual numbers, because reading order on a carton follows the manufacturer’s sequence rather than the quantity in the bottle.
75 ppm
Panthenol
2 ppm
Biotin
1 ppm
Saw palmetto fruit extract
0.5 ppm
Ginseng root extract
0.01 ppm
Copper tripeptide-1
Copper tripeptide-1 at 0.000001% is ten parts per billion. For scale: if the 300 ml bottle were an Olympic swimming pool, that is about three millilitres of it. The panthenol is worth one more note - at 75 ppm it is a small fraction of the 0.200% in the hair tonic, so if panthenol is what you want, that is the other product.
What we are not going to claim
The formula does contain piroctone olamine, a genuine antifungal, and one of the panels on the carton claims the shampoo fights dandruff. But it is present at 0.010% - and piroctone olamine generally needs somewhere between 0.1% and 1.0% to work on dandruff, so this is ten to a hundred times under. At this level it is part of how the bottle keeps itself preserved, not a treatment. If you have flaking that keeps coming back, buy an actual medicated shampoo and use this one on the days in between.
How to use
Daily or every other day · leave on ~3 minutes · rinse thoroughly
The carton is specific about this and it is worth doing. Three to five millilitres, worked between wet palms until it foams, spreads far better than neat shampoo dropped onto one spot of the head.
The scalp is what is being treated. The lengths get cleaned by the water running through them on the way out, and they do not need scrubbing.
This is the step that matters most, and the English panel does not mention it - we found it on the manufacturer’s Russian panel. A shampoo rinsed straight off gives the caffeine and the menthol no contact time at all. Three minutes is the difference between a wash and a treatment.
All the way out, especially at the hairline and the nape. Then, if you use the hair tonic from this line, dry the scalp first and apply it to dry skin.
Expect it to be cold. At 1.120% menthol with menthyl lactate on top, the three-minute wait is noticeably chilly, and on a freshly-shaved head or a scalp that is already sore it can be too much - rinse sooner if so. Keep it out of the eyes and away from the eye area, and rinse immediately with water if it gets in.
Quality
Made in Korea and released against a written specification. The batch we hold documentation for was produced in October 2025 and certified the following month.
One honest difference from the hair tonic in this line: that product’s certificate assays each of its actives against declaration, and this one does not. What we hold for the shampoo confirms appearance, odour, pH, viscosity and that nothing is growing in the bottle - a normal cosmetic release, just not the unusually thorough one the tonic gets. The caffeine and menthol figures above come from the signed formula rather than from a batch assay.
| Appearance | Brown transparent liquid |
|---|---|
| pH | 5.6 at 25 °C, inside a 4.50-6.50 specification |
| Viscosity | 5,740 against a 3,000-9,000 specification |
| Purity | Total aerobic microbial count nil, against a permitted 100 cfu/ml |
| Odour | Matched against the reference sample |
| Caffeine | 1.000% as formulated |
| Menthol | 1.120% as formulated |
| Testing | Dermatologically tested, as printed on the carton |
| Sulfates | None - no sodium lauryl sulfate, no laureth sulfate |
The formula
The named ingredients with their concentrations, then the complete list.
Aqua (Water), Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Chloride, Biotin, Panthenol, Viscum Album (Mistletoe) Extract, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract, Malt Extract, Acorus Calamus Root Extract, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Seed Extract, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract, Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Seed Extract, Piroctone Olamine, Niacinamide, Salicylic Acid, Citric Acid, Diospyros Kaki Fruit Extract, Camellia Japonica Leaf Extract, Ceratonia Siliqua (Carob) Fruit Extract, Menthol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Hydroxyethyl Urea, Benzyl Glycol, Polyquaternium-67, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Caprylyl Glycol, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Glycolipids, Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, Lauryl Hydroxysultaine, Zinc Ricinoleate, Propanediol, Butylene Glycol, Sodium Acetate, Disodium EDTA, 1,2-Hexanediol, Parfum (Fragrance).
Every ingredient, in the same order as the carton in your hand.
Before you use it
Precautions as printed on the GENOSYS carton, drawing on the English, German and Turkish panels together.
The formula
The details
Questions
No, and we will not tell you it does. The function line on the carton reads "scalp and hair cleansing", and that is the claim we stand behind. It is a genuinely good scalp shampoo - caffeine at a working 1%, hard cooling, no sulfates, an acidic pH - but a shampoo that is on your head for three minutes is not a treatment for hair loss. If you are losing hair, see a doctor.
Not at this dose. There is piroctone olamine in the formula, which is a real antifungal, but at 0.010% it is roughly ten to a hundred times below the concentration that works on dandruff. It is there as part of the preservative system. For persistent flaking, use a medicated shampoo and put this one on the days in between.
Yes, in the sense people usually mean: there is no sodium lauryl sulfate and no sodium laureth sulfate. The main surfactant is sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate, which is a sulfonate rather than a sulfate. What we will not pretend is that this makes it a gentle shampoo - at 14.1% it cleans thoroughly. The glycerin at 2.753% is what keeps that from feeling stripping.
Very. At 1.120% this is more menthol than anything else GENOSYS makes, roughly three and a half times the hair tonic. Most people like it, especially in a Dubai summer. On a freshly shaved head, sunburn, or a scalp that is already irritated, it will be too much - rinse sooner, or start every other day.
That is the intended pairing. Shampoo first, rinse thoroughly, dry the scalp, then spray the tonic onto dry skin and leave it. The two are not redundant: the shampoo has the caffeine, the tonic has the salicylic acid and considerably more panthenol. Do read the tonic’s precautions before you buy it, though - it carries an avoid list that this shampoo does not.
Because carton ingredient lists follow the manufacturer’s own sequence, not the amount in the bottle. Biotin is present at two parts per million, which does nothing measurable. We would rather point you at the 1% caffeine and the 1.120% menthol, which are real, than let a name on a label do the selling.
The one in the range with caffeine at a real dose.
HR³ MATRIX MEDI SCALP SHAMPOO α
Free delivery over AED 1,000 · Dispatched from Dubai
