This one-time succès de scandale grossed more than $60 million at the box office in its day. While it is delightfully amoral, producer/co-writer/ star Warren Beatty never quite pulled his themes together. Nevertheless, there are striking moments, not least of which is Julie Christie's now classic appearance at a memorable dinner table. Nominated for four Oscars, it won one - best supporting actress for Lee Grant, who plays Beatty's married lover. The model for Beatty's crimper was widely believed to be Jon Peters, but was actually Jay Sebring who was killed in the Sharon Tate massacre, an event that's as forgotten now as the night on which Shampoo's action is set: 4 November 1968, the day Richard Nixon became president.

On Election Day, 1968, irresponsible hairdresser and ladies' man George Roundy is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his girlfriends and mistress Felicia Karpf, whose husband Lester is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend Jackie.