diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 90bcb27168..3fdfa86a5b 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -455,11 +455,16 @@ void normalize_glob_ref(struct string_list_item *item, const char *prefix,
 	if (*pattern == '/')
 		BUG("pattern must not start with '/'");
 
-	if (prefix) {
+	if (prefix)
 		strbuf_addstr(&normalized_pattern, prefix);
-	}
-	else if (!starts_with(pattern, "refs/"))
+	else if (!starts_with(pattern, "refs/") &&
+		   strcmp(pattern, "HEAD"))
 		strbuf_addstr(&normalized_pattern, "refs/");
+	/*
+	 * NEEDSWORK: Special case other symrefs such as REBASE_HEAD,
+	 * MERGE_HEAD, etc.
+	 */
+
 	strbuf_addstr(&normalized_pattern, pattern);
 	strbuf_strip_suffix(&normalized_pattern, "/");
 
diff --git a/t/t4202-log.sh b/t/t4202-log.sh
index 6e66352558..6b7d8e269f 100755
--- a/t/t4202-log.sh
+++ b/t/t4202-log.sh
@@ -1025,6 +1025,12 @@ test_expect_success 'decorate-refs and simplify-by-decoration without output' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'decorate-refs-exclude HEAD' '
+	git log --decorate=full --oneline \
+		--decorate-refs-exclude="HEAD" >actual &&
+	! grep HEAD actual
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'log.decorate config parsing' '
 	git log --oneline --decorate=full >expect.full &&
 	git log --oneline --decorate=short >expect.short &&