Rumors swirl around Nadal's new hairstyle

A decade ago, Indie Arie sang, "I am not my hair." More recently, Lady Gaga offered a typically counter-culture rejoinder: "I am my hair!"

It's not clear which take on follicles Rafael Nadal abides by, but word is that he underwent a hair transplant—a different sort of off-season operation—to add an alleged 4,500 hairs to his prized Mallorcan dome. The procedure supposedly took place over 10 hours.

Speculation about Nadal's potential hair change has swirled for a while now, though opining on his thinning hair can't be called something new. Consider this tweet posted by current world No. 1 Andy Murray a full three years ago:

Leave it to the self-deprecating, sometimes self-flagellating Murray to put that out there. And (tangent alert) to do something on court such as this, from one short year ago:

Still, as the UK's *Mirror* rag rightly points out, 31-year-old footballer Wayne Rooney, eight months' Nadal's senior, went for a hair transplant more than five years ago and gave a positive testimonial afterward.

When it comes down to it, whether he has truly gone through with such a procedure or not, Nadal knows his nation of Rafanatics aren't going anywhere.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.