Python string replacement except first character

Question

Writing a function that will replace every duplicate character of the first letter of a string with * except for the first letter itself - is there a more pythonic/elegant way to do it than this (lists, etc?)?

def specialreplace(s):
    firstchar = s[0]
    modifiedstr = s[1:].replace(firstchar, "*")
    print firstchar + modifiedstr

specialreplace('oompaloompa') ---> o*mpal**mpa

Answer 1

It's a simple problem, I'm not sure why you're trying to complicate it. Your solution looks good, except for the fact that you should use .join() instead of '+' to join strings together.

"".join((s[0], s[1:].replace(s[0], "*"))