This portrait may be based on a self-portrait. It may even be a self-portrait itself (Owen Gingerich (1930--2023), The Book Nobody Read, 2004, p. 153). Copernicus was a passable artist---he was a was a Renaissance man.

So, yes, Copernicus had big hair. Maybe he idealized himself a bit.

Copernicus lived through stirring times---the High Renaissance (c.1490--c.1527), the Reformation (1517--1555?), the Age of Exploration (c.1400--c.1800)---contemporaries include Amerigo Vespucci (1454--1512), Anne Boleyn (c.1501/1507--1536), Atahualpa (c.1502--1533), Bramante (1444-1514), Charles V (1500--1558, reigned 1519--1556), Cesare Borgia (1475--1507), Christopher Columbus (1451--1506), Erasmus (1466/69--1536), Faust (c.1466/1480--c.1541), Gerolamo Cardano (1501--1576, AKA Jerome Cardan), Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498--1526), Julius II (1443--1513, pope 1503--1513, AKA Giuliano della Rovere), Leonardo da Vinci (1452--1519), Lorenzo de' Medici (1449--1492), Machiavelli (1469--1527), Marguerite de Navarre (1492--1549), Martin Luther (1483--1546), Michelangelo (1475--1564), Moctezuma II (c.1466--1520), Raphael (1483--1520), Richard III (1452--1485, reigned 1483--1485), Suleiman the Magnificent (1494--1566, reigned 1520--1566), and Vesalius (1514--1564). But he, Copernicus, lived in Poland.

Credit/Permission: Anonymous artist, 1580? (uploaded to Wikipedia by Pawel Dembowski (AKA User:Ausir), 2005) / Public domain.
Image link: Wikipedia: File:Nikolaus Kopernikus.jpg.
Local file: local link: copernicus_portrait.html.
File: Copernicus file: copernicus_portrait.html.