Brand of the Day: How Ex-Blondie Backup Singers Made Manic Panic Into a Hair-Dye Empire

The Bellomo sisters' colorful story

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Who could have known that America's first punk-rock boutique would turn into an international cosmetics company, and that its signature product—colorful hair dye with wicked names like Electric Lizard and Purple Haze—would make it a household name among millennials today? 

Bronx natives Tish and Snooky Bellomo, the founders of Manic Panic and the Martha Stewarts of punk rock, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, opened their boutique in New York's East Village in 1977 after audience members at a punk show where they were performing (they were backup singers in Blondie's original lineup, and played in other bands too) inquired about their unique look.

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