The substr() function will probably help you here:
substr()
$str = substr($str, 1);
Strings are indexed starting from 0, and this functions second parameter takes the cutstart. So make that 1, and the first char is gone.
To remove every : from the beginning of a string, you can use ltrim:
:
$str = '::f:o:';$str = ltrim($str, ':');var_dump($str); //=> 'f:o:'
Use substr:
$str = substr($str, 1); // this is a applepie :)