This story is in the National Enquirer, which continues to mystify us by getting a lot of valid scoops that they paint with the same sensational brush as all their other stories. So it’s hard to tell what’s true in my favorite rag, but the fact that this news is coming out a few weeks after Aniston changed her hair makes it sound believable to me.

So as you know, Aniston chopped off her hair about seven weeks ago. She got a blunt bob that hit right around the collarbone, after wearing her trademark hair about six inches longer for years. There were undoubtedly some extensions in there too. Aniston’s hairdresser said that he was trying to help his client escape from “Real Housewife” hair and that the cut was inspired by Julie Christie in Shampoo and Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 weeks. Only if this latest article is to be believed, Aniston really loved her Real Housewife hair and hates the new ‘do. She thinks it makes her look older and “like a dowdy soccer mom.”

Instead of being pleased with her new chin-length bob, she’s been telling pals she feels like a “dowdy-looking soccer mom”!

“Jen feels the new cut is a mistake,” an insider divulged. “She was promised by her stylist that the new haircut would make her look younger, but she thinks it has the opposite effect.”

While those close to the 42-year-old actress keep telling her how cute the new cut is, “she doesn’t believe them,” continued another source. “As far as she’s concerned, it looks terrible.”

Jen’s displeasure with the new hairstyle has brought back a flood of insecurities from her past.

Explained the source: “She’s always had issues with her nose.

“She thought she’d come to terms with its shape, but without her long hair she thinks it looks too big for her face again. She also thinks the haircut makes her face look rounder and she hates that. Her hair was really a major security blanket.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, April 25, 2011]

I don’t often sympathize with Aniston as she doesn’t need our sympathy, (and let’s face it, a lot of the sympathy she gets is judgy) but I recently got a haircut that was much shorter than I was hoping for and it kind of sucked my mojo for a while. It’s a bitch to get a bad haircut and Aniston identifies with her hair and must take this sort of thing very seriously. Plus she’s a creature of extreme habit and it must have been hard for her to adjust to a shorter hairstyle. Remember when she said she hated her Rachel haircut from friends? You get used to seeing yourself with a certain hairstyle and with your hair at a certain length, and Aniston likes longer hair. I think her new haircut is cute, but I also think the longer hair suited her more. She needed to change up her look though.

If Aniston really said this though she’s disrespecting a large component of her fan base, and I’ll just leave it at that.

Also, I’ve been looking at photos of Aniston’s hair, and it looks like her hairdresser took her through a “transitional period” where he cut off about an inch and a half (or took out her extensions) before going full bob. Like here’s how she looked in November and right before and after her major haircut.

11/18/10

11/19/10

2/21/11

2/21/11

2/22/11

2/22/11

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmam1hZoR2e8mepaehlpq%2FoK3Noqqtp56UtaLAxKyWoZ2ilLumw76hmKKqj6KurLHSmJ%2Beqo%2BhvLC3vqWgpJ2Plqylu9adsJirn5iwpr6%2BpqamZw%3D%3D