MartinLeeGore.com History of the Floof

For those of you who don't know, we Depeche Mode fans have given Martin Gore's curly head of hair its own name,"Floof." This is fitting, seeing as it is one of Martin's most striking physical features, which seems to have a personality all its own! Martin has transformed his Floof many times over his life, and hopefully, will continue to do so in the future. What I have attempted to do here is recount a brief history of the Floof, from its earliest days with Depeche Mode, right up to today!

One of the earliest pictures of the Floof as a 'member' of Depeche Mode (see photo 1), taken in c. 1981, is shown on the right. In one of Martin's MANY vain attempts to tame and straighten the Floof, he has only succeeded in what I like call, Helmet Hair. Helmet Hair, or H.H., can best be defined as: "A solid and unmoving mass of hair, that when worn on the head, could possibly save the wearer's life in an accident, just by thickness alone." It seems that later that same year, Martin gave up this attempt to tame the Floof, and went for the Natural Floof Look (see photo 2). Martin allowed the Floof to show off its natural curl and a minimum of Floof taming hair products seemed be used at this time.

In 1982, perhaps Martin felt that the Floof was lonely up there on his head all by itself, so he attempted to grow some 'friends' for the Floof-a beard and moustache (see photo 3). While the Floof appreciated Martin's effort, it was a dismal failure [As of April 2007, Martin has not been seen attempting to grow facial hair again]. For the rest of 1982 and 1983, Martin, although clean shaven again, continued to have the Natural Floof Look on the top of his scalp, while beginning to shave the sides of the Floof off (see photos 4 & 5).

Martin seemed to using more and more hair products in order to control the Floof and to make it do his bidding throughout 1984 (see photo 6). As the year progressed, the Floof began to lose more and more ground on the top of Martin's head, when Martin shaved even more of the Floof off the sides of his scalp (see photo 7).

At this time, Martin was also beginning to experiment with coloring the Floof in unnatural ways, perhaps in frustration with the Floof for allowing itself to darken with age.

1985 could easily be considered the heyday of the Floof (see photos 8-11). Highly bleached by Martin at this time, the Floof was made to, for lack of a better word, "explode" from the top of Martin's scalp. Martin seemed to be trying to use the volume of the Floof to his advantage, while at the same time trying to straighten the Floof. The resulting Floof style was a frizzy mass that appeared to defy gravity! I believe this era to be the pinnacle of the Floof's bleaching and styling by Martin, its were never to be seen again!

By 1987, Martin was still shaving the sides of the Floof, but he had relaxed the regiment on the top of the Floof (see photos 12 & 13). Although Martin was still bleaching the Floof, he wasn't always so quick to do so, allowing the Floof to recover between bleaching sessions. Martin also let the top of the Floof grow longer, and allowed it to curl some. This basic Floof style was kept by Martin for quite some time, at least well into the 1990s (see photo 14).

While recording the Songs of Faith and Devotion album, Martin allowed the Floof to grow even longer, and began to use less Floof taming hair products again. By the time of the Devotional Tour in 1993, the Floof had gone wild (see photo 15). Martin REALLY let his Floof down during this period and allowed the Floof to curl into little ringlets.

In the mid-1990s, Martin began to try to control the Floof yet again (see photo 16). Martin seemed to be attempting to straighten the Floof and also started shaving the sides of the Floof. Then, the UNTHINKABLE happened...

In 1997, Martin cut almost the ENTIRE Floof off, while allowing the Floof to return to its natural color (see photo 17). Although the Floof loved the fact that it didn't have to be bleached all the time, it was quite upset at the small amount of coverage Martin allowed. This has to be, without a doubt, the most embarrassing time in the Floof's life. [No one likes to be made to look stupid!]

Martin must've realized his mistake at treating the Floof so harshly, because by 1998, the Floof was back in full force (see photo 18). This is the straightest that Martin has ever gotten the Floof , and still looked natural. Martin also began bleaching the Floof again, at long intervals.
When Depeche Mode went into the studio in 2000 to record the Exciter album, the Floof was allowed free range of the top of Martin's head (see photo 19). The sides of the Floof were no longer being shaved. Although Martin was trimming the Floof shorter, the Floof as a whole was allowed to form tight curls all over Martin's scalp.

In 2001, Martin began to cut the sides of the Floof shorter than the top of the Floof, but still allowed to Floof to form tight curls (see photo 20). By the end of the Exciter tour, near the close of 2001, Martin had allowed it to grow long again and was attempting to straighten it, with infrequent bleaching (see photo 21).
In 2002, Martin did some MAJOR re-working of the floof. He finally grew the floof out long enough to attempt another nature-defying straightening (See photo 22). Rumor has it that Martin used a new hair straightening technique from Japan, but the Floof isn't talking. Supposedly the hair stylist uses chemicals and hot ceramic tiles to straighten the hair.

Martin must've really pushed the boundries of hair styling as the Floof looked pretty burnt out and fried after said straightening session (see photo 23). And apparently it must be a rigoris process because Martin fought to keep the straight parts of his Floof for the majority of 2002...despite the visual effect...

By the beginning of 2003, the Floof is really striking back with tons of curls under a facade of burnt, straight locks. (see photo 24). Not too mention the fact that Martin was not coloring the curly Floof that was starting to creep over his scalp.

As Martin hit the road for his solo tour in the spring, the Floof was getting downright nutty. Maybe it was the nerves and stress of being on stage all by himself with Martin, but the Floof just simply EXPLODED! All I am going to say is, my mom would call that a rat's nest...(see photo 25)

By At the end of 2003, Martin let his Floof go natural again, and finally clipped off the straight parts. From these pictures captured from Martin's interview on Disc 2 of the "101" DVD, it looks as though Martin started to color the Floof again, too (See photos 26 and 27). Both Martin and the Floof looked happy and relaxed!

In August of 2004 Martin and the Floof were seen painting the town red in London...and they BOTH looked good doing it! (See Photo 28) The Floof was in top form and so was Martin...the Floof won't tell, but we think Martin had lost some weight to go along with that wonderful tan! The Floof looked truely happy and quite natural too!

In the fall of 2005, Depeche Mode began their "Playing the Angel" Tour, with Martin and the Floof making their presence known onstage. Martin is infamous for covering the Floof with various styles of hats, in times of despiration. Thanks to the creativity of one of his fans, Martin has FINALLY found a Floof cover that the Floof enjoys wearing as well (see photo 29).

When the Floof is finally revealed onstage, he is in FINE form (see photo 30). Looking an awful lot like the "Sexy Floof" of 2004. We beleive that Martin and the Floof have found a style they can both agree on and makes them both look like sexy bastards!

In the spring of 2006, while Martin and the Floof were still "Touring the Angel" in Europe the Floof went under attack. Now, every good Floof fan LOVES a blonde floof, but this went too far. Martin bleached the entire Floof almost white (see photo 31). The end result was to make the Floof and Martin look a lot older.

UPDATE:
In May of 2007, Martin and the Floof played a DJ gig in Santa Barbara. Martin was fabulously tanned again and the Floof was in TOP form. Martin allowed the Floof to return to its more natural color, with a nice crown of blonde curls (see photos 32 & 33). The Floof and the fans were really jamming to the tunes Martin was playing.

Who knows what the future holds for Martin and the Floof...we hope to see a lot of Martin and the Floof during this break...