Matrix runs eight distinct colouring systems, and unlike most professional brands they are not simply "permanent, demi, semi" in three tidy boxes. There are two demi-permanents that behave differently from each other, three permanent ranges with different grey-coverage jobs, a gel toner, a direct-dye vivid line and a permanent built specifically for coily texture. Choosing badly costs a service.
This guide is for the colourist at the chair and the informed client who wants to understand what is being mixed. It covers what each system is, the pH and lift behaviour that separates them, grey coverage, and which developer goes with what.
The short version
- SoColor — the permanent workhorse. Lift, deposit, full shade range.
- SoColor Extra Coverage — permanent, engineered for 100% white coverage.
- SoColor Dream Age — permanent for mature, resistant, coarse grey.
- SoColor Sync — acidic, ammonia-free demi. Gentlest. Tone and gloss.
- Super Sync — alkaline demi. Deposit plus real grey coverage.
- Tonal Control — pre-bonded gel toner for lightened blondes.
- SoColor Cult — semi-permanent direct dye. Vivids and pastels.
- Coil Color — permanent formulated for coily and curly textures.
The permanent bar
SoColor — the default permanent
SoColor is the range you reach for when the service needs lift as well as deposit: going lighter, covering a range of grey, or changing tone significantly. It is an alkaline permanent cream, mixed with Matrix Cream Developer, and ProHair carries the working shade range — the naturals, ash, gold, mocha, red-brown, violet and high-lift families that make up a functioning colour bar.
Developer choice sets the outcome: 10 volume for deposit-only and dark-to-dark work, 20 volume for one to two levels of lift and the standard grey-coverage mix, 30 volume for two to three levels, 40 volume for high-lift shades only. The developer is stocked in 473 ml and 946 ml.
SoColor Extra Coverage — when grey wins
Standard permanent shades assume some pigment already in the hair. On hair that is 75% or more white, that assumption fails and you get a translucent, washed-out result at the hairline within a fortnight. Extra Coverage carries a heavier pigment load — the N, NA, NJ and dedicated coverage shades — built for exactly this. If you find yourself repeatedly mixing extra natural into a standard formula to hold the hairline, switch to Extra Coverage and stop compensating.
SoColor Dream Age — resistant, mature grey
Dream Age is the third permanent and the most misunderstood. It is not simply "Extra Coverage for older clients". Mature grey hair is often also resistant: the cuticle is tight, the fibre is coarse, and colour struggles to penetrate at all. Dream Age is formulated to open and deposit on that hair type while conditioning it, and its shade family runs deliberately soft and natural. Use it for the resistant coarse grey that Extra Coverage covers but leaves looking flat or opaque.
Coil Color — permanent for coily texture
Coily and tightly curled hair has a different cuticle geometry and a different porosity profile along the strand — often more porous at the bends, less at the shaft. A standard permanent applied to it grabs unevenly. Coil Color is formulated for that structure, and it has its own dedicated Coil Color Oil-Cream Developer in 20 and 30 volume, which is oil-based rather than a standard cream. Use the Coil Color developer with Coil Color — this is one of the few places in the Matrix range where developers are not interchangeable.
The demi bar — and why there are two
This is the question we get asked most. SoColor Sync and Super Sync are both demi-permanents. They are not the same product with different names.
SoColor Sync — acidic, ammonia-free
SoColor Sync is an acidic demi. It deposits without meaningfully swelling the cuticle, which makes it the gentlest colour service Matrix offers. It will not lift, and its grey coverage is a blend rather than a solid cover. What it does brilliantly is tone, gloss, refresh mid-lengths and correct without adding damage. The Clear shade is a pure gloss with no pigment at all — worth keeping on the shelf for shine services on hair you do not want to touch chemically.
Use it for: glossing, toning, refreshing faded ends, blending the first few greys, colour on compromised hair.
Super Sync — alkaline, with grey coverage
Super Sync is an alkaline demi. It opens the cuticle enough to place pigment properly, which buys it something SoColor Sync cannot deliver: genuine grey coverage, up to roughly 100% depending on shade, without committing to a permanent. It still will not lift. Its shade range is the broadest of the two, including the gold, warm and neutral families a coverage service needs.
Use it for: grey coverage on a client who does not want ammonia-permanent, tone changes with more staying power, deposit-only darkening.
The rule: gloss and tone with no coverage requirement → SoColor Sync. Deposit that must cover grey → Super Sync. Lift required → neither; go permanent.
Tonal Control — the blonde toner
Tonal Control is a pre-bonded gel toner, and it belongs to the lightening service rather than the colour service. It goes on after the lightener is rinsed, and the bonding technology in it means you are toning and protecting in the same step rather than toning freshly stressed hair with nothing to buffer it. The shade range is built for lightened blondes — the neutral, ash, gold, violet-cool, pearl and beige families, plus the high-level 11 shades for very light lifted bases.
The gel texture matters: it is more controllable than a liquid toner at the shampoo bowl and less likely to run into the scalp. Pair it with the lightening systems in the lighteners and developers guide.
SoColor Cult — vivids and direct dye
SoColor Cult is semi-permanent direct dye — no developer, no mixing, no chemical reaction. It stains the outside of the fibre, which is why it is so gentle and why it fades so quickly. The range covers the pastel and fashion families as well as a permanent-format subset.
Direct dye is only as good as the base you put it on. Pastel and neon shades need a clean, evenly lifted pale base to read true; on an uneven base they will read patchy no matter how well you apply them. And once it is on, ordinary shampoo strips it fast — send the client home with Keep Me Vivid or you will see them back in three weeks.
Choosing in one pass
- Needs lift → SoColor (or a lightener plus Tonal Control)
- 75%+ white hair → SoColor Extra Coverage
- Resistant coarse grey, mature client → SoColor Dream Age
- Coily or tightly curled texture → Coil Color with Coil Color developer
- Grey coverage without permanent → Super Sync
- Gloss, tone, refresh, damaged hair → SoColor Sync
- Toning a fresh lightening service → Tonal Control
- Pink, blue, teal, pastel → SoColor Cult
The support kit
A colour bar needs more than tubes. A Matrix Color Application Bottle handles liquid toner and rinse application, and litre pumps (black or white) turn the 1 L back-bar shampoos into something usable at a busy bowl.
The bottom line
Matrix gives you three permanents because grey is three different problems, and two demis because glossing and covering are not the same job. Match the system to the service rather than to the shade you want, then pick the shade inside it. Everything above is in stock at ProHair — browse the Matrix collection, or read the complete Matrix buying guide for the haircare side.