Almost 20 years before Scorsese directed Margot Robbie in that nursery scene in Wolf of Wall Street, he put Sharon Stone in his 1995 film, Casino. One of the hottest blondes of the 90s, Stone plays the ironically-named Ginger, wife of Robert DeNiro’s Casino boss Sam Rothstein and queen of mafia-run Las Vegas. It may have been set in the 70s, but there were no cutesy Farrah Fawcett flicks for our Shazza. To play this heart-hearted glamour puss, her long flaxen locks were expertly quiffed, coiffed, tousled and beehive’d to their full seductive potential. But things take a tragic turn and poor Ginger ends up sporting a dodgy, feathered crop that Princess Di would have probably steered clear of, as she spirals into addiction and despair.

Yet despite her character’s instability, Ginger lights up the screen in a number of dazzling 70s Vegas get ups – a touch more glamorous than your typical tacky mobster’s wife in a Scorsese film. When she first saunters into Sam Rothstein’s life, ex-hooker Ginger is a high-maintenance girl with scraped-back hair that means business. Her livelihood is bringing rich men into the casinos and getting them to spend every penny they have ('Ginger’s mission in life was money'). She’s ruthless, mercenary and irresistible, with confidence, swagger and big bouncy curls (with an expert hair swoosh) to prove it.

Here, we pay tribute to the hairstyles of one of the most iconic blonde, diamond-toting hustlers of the big screen, from her show-stopping locks at the beginning, to her less elegant, mullet-sporting demise towards the end.

Ginger on top

A hustler of the highest (and most glamorous) order, Ginger made her living by exploiting naive gamblers who were rendered senseless by her charm. Yet, if she had only known it, she could driven herself over to LA and snared herself a shampoo ad within minutes.

Ginger slaying all in her path

After losing her cool and throwing a table of chips over a guy she believes has shortchanged her, Ginger waltzes off in typical Scorsese slow-mo fashion, her hair constructed with all the precision and tenacity of the Sistine Chapel.

 

Ginger traps a mouse 

Letting down her strawberry-blonde hair, finished off with a bejewelled barette, Ginger lays her aim on Robert de Niro, as Sam, dollar bill signs twinkling in her eyes. 

Ginger plays the wife

Despite the knowledge that Ginger spends her days hanging around casinos and scamming rich men, Sam thinks she'd make the perfect wife and mother. He swiftly proposes and canny Ginger eventually says yes, on the proviso that he looks after her if it doesn’t work out (come on, these were the days before pre-nups!). And for her big moment, Ginger looks like an Oscar statue with a piece of hair architecture which looks not unlike a Victoria sponge cake. It’d be hard for any guy to not propose to her.

Ginger riding high

If Bet Lynch were... well, Ginger. As her power ascends, so too does her hair - sitting slap bang on top of her head with what appears to be the self-growing length of hair from a Girl's World. Her cheekbones have become weapons of defence and now they are married, Sam has furnished Ginger with all the brightly coloured polyester blouses she could wish for, not to mention the mink. Speaking of which, Scorcese seems to have a thing for mink, remember the frozen mink coats in the meat truck in Goodfella's?

Ginger strikes gold

You've got to hand it to Ginger: she played the role of the Stepford wife really well. At least for a while. Her official ‘70s Scorsese mobster wife’ is tempered somewhat by the butter-wouldn't-melt pink head scarf draped around her neat and perky beehive (a beehive which is undoubtedly filled with all sorts of pharmaceutical contraband, for the Ginger drug phase is nigh). 

Ginger hatches a plan

As the wife of one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas, Ginger celebrates her new social standing with a series of glamorous Grace Kelly-inspired up do's... And still, all is not what it seems. She may have the vacation in Palm Springs stripey highlights down to a fine art (not least the amount of back-combing and Elnett) but it's all about unravel, in a spectacular way.

Ginger loses focus

Sadly, Ginger’s heart lies inexplicably with her scrawny, ratty moustache’d ex-boyfriend, Lester whom she secretly tries to pass him money behind her husband’s back. Once Sam finds out, their marriage starts to unravel, neatly paralleled by Ginger’s hair. Gone are the vampish waves, French pleats and Croydon facelifts of old - in their place are sorrowfully naff, shoulder-length corkscrew curls, a chilling omen of the 80s travesty chop which is yet to come.

Ginger goes to the dark side 

Disillusioned with life and her workaholic husband, Ginger slides into drinking and despair. And thusly, the hair gets shorter and ever so slightly more frazzled – as do her men, evidenced by her seduction of Sam’s best friend Nicky, played by Joe Pesci. 

Ginger hits the point of no return

Like a blow-dry on speedboat, it's all gone a bit wrong for Ginger. She eventually leaves Sam and becomes an embittered alcoholic overnight, tragically swapping her long glamorous locks for a Pat Cash, ash-blonde 80s mullet, that even David Bowie himself couldn’t make look cool. Spectacular nails though.

Ginger gets found out 

Sam doesn’t keep his promise to keep Ginger in furs following their divorce, because by now, she's a drug-addled mess. Of coruse, Ginger loses her mind and in a haze of vodka, drunkenly ties their child to a bedpost. Which she thinks is COMPLETELY NORMAL. Sam goes to Nicky’s restaurant to confront her. Sam’s Elton John jacket and chain-smoking Ginger’s increasingly spindly mullet pretty much spell it out for us: things don't end well for these two.

Ginger clings onto dear life

'I said no, no no – everything he said I just kept saying no!' No one will listen to you know, Ginger. The casino barons remember you as you were, the dreamiest, classiest woman in Las Vegas. You're starting to become a pain in the ass, and you know what the mafia does to those...

Ginger's beige episode 

After Nicky washes his hands of her, Ginger turns up at Sam’s house demanding he let her in so she can collect some personal things - personal things being the key to a safety deposit box containing two million dollars (which it will probably cost in hair extensions to restore her hair back to its former glory). She has a tantrum on the beige patio, wearing a matching leather beige ensemble with hair that has lost all its sunshiney optimisim and is now... depressingly, beige.

Ginger's final furlong

Despite escaping to LA with a shedload of cash and jewels, Ginger falls in with a dodgy crowd who bankrupt her. From the glitzy, twinkling lights of the Vegas casinos, it falls to a breezeblocked motel hallway to host her final scenes. It's here that she collapses and tragically dies from an overdose, a mere shadow of her former glamorous self, the woman with hair that could break hearts. 

Ginger, we love you

Yet, however tragic her downfall, Ginger takes the crown as one of the most mesmerizing blondes to ever grace a Scorsese film. Well, you just can’t go wrong with Sharon Stone can you? 

Article modified on 18/03/2024