2019 Dye Hard of the Year

"Manic Panic has greatly affect my personality, two huge events in my life come to mind that greatly changed the path of my life. The first event was when I left home at 17 years old, when I dyed my hair for the first time with a vivid Manic Panic color, I knew there was no going back. I felt freedom, I felt connected to the world for the first time, I felt like for the first time that everything was going to be okay no matter how scary it was, and I never looked back. The second event was when I was hired at Manic Panic! For at least a year or two prior, I felt like I was living in a shell, my outside did not reflect how I felt inside. I felt like I was putting on a costume everyday I went to work. When I came to work at Manic Panic, I was given freedom to look how I want, I obviously colored my hair first and then I embraced it. I look and feel nothing like I did when I first started and even had the confidence to shave half my head. I came to life, and now I feel like me every day." ~S

Always a Dye Hard

We always love a great transformation story, and it doesn't get much better than with Macey Kerrigan. We applaud her strength and courage to take a leap of faith and truly find herself. We love this story and hopes it touches your heart as well.

"Around the time Coraline came out my parents were getting a divorce. For some reason Coraline really got to me. I felt I like I could relate to her (even though her parents weren’t divorced). To make matters worse this was when I moved and started a brand new MIDDLE SCHOOL (like Coraline). I was bullied relentlessly for every reason you can come up with. The abuse didn’t stop when I went home either. I had the worst Step Mother imaginable. I felt stupid and ugly and she only convinced me further. During the summer I came to my Mama in tears from it all and she brought me to Hot Topic and let me do something I had always wanted to do. She bought me a tub of blue Manic Panic dye and I dyed my hair like Coraline’s. I looked in the mirror and I felt beautiful for the first time in so long. I love Manic Panic. I still dye my hair various shades of blue all the time now with your products. (And am currently concocting something right now  💙) 

Always a Dye Hard, 

Macey Kerrigan"

1977 Memories - from the birth of PUNK and MANIC PANIC

"So, in early December 1977, after years of reading Village Voice and yes, After Dark, cover to cover at my local library (along with the recent additions of Punk and New York Rocker—I had to mail away for those), the tribal drumbeats of punk rock were becoming too deafening to resist, so I hatched a plan with my rock ’n’ roll pen pals—my only friends, pretty much—to leave Nowheresville, New England, and run away to form NY’s premier teen punk combo, the Blessed. I hopped on an Amtrak train one Friday afternoon in New London, CT and headed to the Big Apple—a place I’d only been to twice—nervous as can be but thrilled to pieces that my life was finally taking a positive turn! Very "Piss Factory". "I’m gonna be a big star and I will never return, never return, no, never return!"

Except my punk rock dreams all came to naught, as, naturally, my parents didn’t really think this was quite the lifestyle for this 16-year-old Catholic High School Junior. How dare they! They hired a bigwig detective named Irwin Blye (Subject of the Nicholas Pileggi book Irwin Blye, Private Eye—I think he’s still in business!) to drag my sorry ass home to Groton, CT, the Submarine Capitol of the World, so that I could finish up a horrific year-and-a-half at St. Bernard’s High School.

Anyway, before all that crazy shit went down, I was met by my soon-to-be non-bandmates Billy, Nick, Howie and X at Penn Station. First stop on my punk rock introductory tour was Bleecker Bob’s—I think we just walked south down and geographically that would have been the first stop—where I’m sure I received a characteristically gruff welcome. It was there I remember receiving my first punk rock do, which we all had a hand in, as I recall.

Then we walked across 8th Street to Manic Panic, where I received a much warmer reception! Tish and Snooky were so kind-hearted and welcoming, so funny and sweet—it really meant a lot to a shell-shocked hick from the sticks like me. As I said, I’d really only been to NY twice beforehand, so, despite whatever teen punk bravado and bonhomie and know-it-all-ness I could muster up, I was really experiencing a profound case of culture shock. Who wouldn’t be? But Manic Panic felt like home. While I didn’t actually sleep there (they had a new business to run, it wouldn’t have been a good idea to be housing a teen runaway), Tish and Snooky did allow me to store my suitcase in the back of the store, for which I was eternally grateful. It held my most precious possessions at the time—all four Sex Pistols singles, a couple of Clash singles, and Spiral Scratch. Oh yeah, and clean socks and underwear. Clean-but not for long! Anyway, more importantly, Tish and Snooky made me feel safe and part of the gang and were like the crazy punk rock big sisters I never had. I’m sure the rest of the original Blessed (and thousands of others) felt the same way. So, 41 years later, let me shout it from the rooftops—THANK YOU, TISH AND SNOOKY BELLOMO—YOU’RE THE BEST!"

Youth Activists

Our favorite little Manic Minis, Tiny Bangs!! We love their style and their fearless self-expression.

Tiny Bangs is named after creator Kirsten Bosio and her two kids' trademark hairstyle. Their goal was to make an alternative to the big kids' clothing retailers that's both conscious and creative.

Most of the collection is handmade in Los Angeles using both new and upcycled materials, and the rest is carefully curated and hand picked with love.

Check them out and don't be shy to ask questions about their products, including 90's cds we currently have in rotation.