NEIGHBORS in hell threatened to kill a hairdresser if he painted his house rainbow colours, but he didn’t let that stop him injecting some color into his life.
Mykey O’Halloran has saved enough money to buy the beach of his dreams at homebut that’s when some people in his community started interfering with his life.
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The proudly gay hairstylist from Melbourne, Australia bought the house on Phillip Island, about 50 kilometers southeast of the city, in February last year.
Her most requested hairstyles are rainbow colors to match her technicolor look – so when she bought a beige house on Phillip Island, she decided that rainbow colors would be the perfect decoration.
However, this is where the problem started.
Mikey said The Sun Online: “About a month after I moved, five men came to my back garden around 10 o’clock at night.
“They had heard that I was painting my house with rainbow colors and they didn’t like it. They threatened to kill me and tried to beat me.”
Mykey had never met any of these men before and was shocked by the explosion.
He said one of the people, who he found to be his neighbor, stopped him from attacking him with the others.
“They were very violent, violent and misogynistic,” she said. “He called me a ‘gay c***’ and said ‘if you paint the house, see what happens because next time it won’t be so good’.
His neighbor told him: “If you paint a rainbow in the house I will come back to kill you.”
Following the harrowing gay assault, Mykey said he was “terrified,” crying and locking himself in the house before calling the police.
The police arrived five minutes later and went to interview the neighbors.
Two days later, he was charged with unlawful assault and threatening to kill her.
In July 2021, he was found guilty of a lesser charge of unlawful assault and was found guilty.
Mykey slammed the decision to fine his neighbor A$2,500 (£1,418) as a “slap on the arm”.
They threatened to kill me and tried to beat me
Mykey O’Halloran
However, luckily, the community rallied along the line in a very positive way.
“I wrote about the attack on social media the day after it happened and it went viral,” he said.
“People saw what happened and wanted to help me paint my house.”
“A painting company reached out and donated 40 liters of paint to help me paint the rainbow.
“Approximately 100 people came to help me paint my house and we had a barbecue. A group of businessmen volunteered their entire work day to help.”
The interior of her home is similarly decorated, with rainbow colors on the kitchen and bathroom walls and cabinets.
Mykey said he was proud that the community “took a stand against bullying and homophobia. It was good to have something positive out of a s*** situation”.
However, his problems with his neighbors were not over.
“The neighbors on the other side of my house at the time said they ‘didn’t want to be near the playhouse,’ so I left the other side of my house clean for them out of respect,” said Mykey.
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Following the paint job, neighbors put up a ‘money’ sign outside their house, saying they were being evicted.
But two days later, they took down the sign, Mykey added.
“After I painted my house, they stopped talking to me and have been rude to me,” he said. “A year passed and I was afraid to paint the other side, and I just thought, why do I respect these people when they don’t respect me?”
“Also my house looked unfinished. So I went up on the ladder and painted the fence that I had put up to cover it and I painted that rainbow and then I painted the last wall of my house.
“It was on the one year anniversary of the incident. It was very sad for me.”
Ever since he started painting the fence and the last wall of his house, Mykey says his neighbors haven’t given him any trouble.
Although Mykey’s house is the most beautiful house in his neighborhood, it is not the only one with any color.
“There’s a blue house on my street, and a blue and purple house on the corner,” he said. “The other house is a little red.”
And about his nosy neighbours, he says: “It’s not like I’m living in a secretive place with rules. It’s a beach town on an island, you’d expect the houses to be small and colorful.”
He said he visited his local council, and it said his rainbow colors are fine.
“People drive by my house all the time and take pictures and it makes people happy,” he said. “I don’t have a problem if they do, it’s good if it spreads happiness and people want to come and see a happy place.
“The kids love it, too, and it just adds another dimension to the neighborhood.”
He has gained fame for his amazing hairstyles, emojis, food and Christmas trees on people’s heads.
Mykey often shares videos of his hair with his 600k TikTok followers are 153k Instagram followers.
She works for the hair company Manic Panic and is heading to the US this week after being offered a wig job at Ru Paul’s Drag Convention.