(Paula Gately Tillman, ©PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM)
For almost 40 years Tish and Snooky?the sisters behind bold, beloved hair dye brand Manic Panic?have been inspiring generations of nonconformists to express themselves with decidedly unnatural hair colors: pastel pink, grungy green, bright blue. And if anyone could convince people of all ages that neon hair is cool, it’s these two. The sisters not not only started their careers as singers in the original Blondie line up, but were the proprietors of America’s first punk shop on Saint Mark’s Place in New York City in 1977 where they sold clothes, accessories and hair dye brought back from the UK.
Tish and Snooki recognized early that hair dye needed to become their primary domain, and?working from their apartments?they created the now-iconic Manic Brand brand. At the time, their customers were mainly friends and members of New York’s punk scene, including Cyndi Lauper, which made sense given the sisters’ rock and roll background. “We were women and we were performers,” says Tish. “We knew what we liked and what people like us would like. We knew what punk rockers would like, so we started to focus on music. And hair cosmetics were part of that.”
Nearly four decades later, they’re still inspired by music and its storied subcultures. Their most recent product launch–a selection of pastel dyes dubbed Creamtones–shares a name with another musical a...