in reply to hash ref mind blow

You did a "Shallow copy" of the hash - merely copied it's (first level) reference.

What what you are trying, you need to do a "Deep copy" - plenty of references to that in this monastery, and in CPAN modules.

Update: Corion beat me to the explanation and CPAN references.

     Have you been high today? I see the nuns are gay! My brother yelled to me...I love you inside Ed - Benny Lava, by Buffalax

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom