remover o primeiro caracter de uma string javascript

1var string1 = "foobar";
2var string2 = string1.substr(1);
3console.log(string2); // shows "oobar"
4
5var string = "//www.pipi.com";
6while(string.charAt(0) === '/') { //take character position 0
7   string = string.substr(1);
8}