Manic Panic

History

Manic Panic opened its original store doors for the first time on July 7, 1977, at 33 St. Marks Place, in New York City’s East Village started up by sisters, Tish and Snooky Bellomo. The pair originally sang back-ups for Blondie and continue to sing in their own band today, the Sic Fucks. Since then, the store has opened establishments in many other places, including Japan, England, Colombia, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey. The store sold vintage clothing and accessories, makeup and hair products, all in what the women described as glam-punk style. The colourful hair dyes proved especially popular and Manic Panic has become an industry leader in alternative Hair coloring.

In 2004 MTV mentioned Manic Panic in a television documentary, crediting them for beginning what would become a trend of men and women wearing different hair colors in the 1990s into the 2000s. Manic Panic has received numerous mentions in publications such as Interview, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Elle, The New York Times, The New Yorker, WRandolling Stone.

The NYC store's front and signage are featured prominently in a shot in the opening montage of Saturday Night Live's 1980-81 season.

In 2010, seven colors of the hair dye (Black N' Blue, Deadly Nightshade, Divine Wine, Electric Sunshine, Flaming, Plum Passion and Tiger Lily) were discontinued, reducing the number of available colors from 33 to 26. According to insiders at the company, Electric Sunshine was undergoing a reformulation, but then the colors were removed from the line-up altogether.

Gallery

Images of Manic Panic hair dye being applied.

Products

Apart from hair dye, Manic Panic sells many other products geared towards punk and gothic consumers. These include nail polish, vegan boas, eyelashes, foundation, eyeshadow, t-shirts, baseball caps, and others. Some but not all of their products are vegan, containing synthetics instead of animal ingredients.