diff --git a/src/node/index.js b/src/node/index.js
index cdd5b8d9b..62b3c13c1 100644
--- a/src/node/index.js
+++ b/src/node/index.js
@@ -131,10 +131,6 @@ exports.buffer = {};
  * @api private
  */
 function _initHeaders(req) {
-  req._unset = {
-    // lowercase headers that were unset; this is used to suppress some default
-    // headers, such as Accept-Encoding and Content-Type
-  };
   req._header = {
     // coerces header names to lowercase
   };
@@ -792,7 +788,7 @@ Request.prototype.request = function() {
   // set tcp no delay
   req.setNoDelay(true);
 
-  if (options.method !== 'HEAD' && !('accept-encoding' in this._unset)) {
+  if (options.method !== 'HEAD') {
     req.setHeader('Accept-Encoding', 'gzip, deflate');
   }
 
diff --git a/src/request-base.js b/src/request-base.js
index ff519477a..b88e27cb5 100644
--- a/src/request-base.js
+++ b/src/request-base.js
@@ -364,7 +364,6 @@ RequestBase.prototype.set = function(field, val) {
 
   this._header[field.toLowerCase()] = val;
   this.header[field] = val;
-  delete this._unset[field.toLowerCase()];
   return this;
 };
 
@@ -375,7 +374,7 @@ RequestBase.prototype.set = function(field, val) {
  * Example:
  *
  *      req.get('/')
- *        .unset('Accept-Encoding')
+ *        .unset('User-Agent')
  *        .end(callback);
  *
  * @param {String} field field name
@@ -383,7 +382,6 @@ RequestBase.prototype.set = function(field, val) {
 RequestBase.prototype.unset = function(field) {
   delete this._header[field.toLowerCase()];
   delete this.header[field];
-  this._unset[field.toLowerCase()] = true;
   return this;
 };
 
@@ -623,7 +621,7 @@ RequestBase.prototype.send = function(data) {
     }
   } else if (typeof data === 'string') {
     // default to x-www-form-urlencoded
-    if (!type && !('content-type' in this._unset)) this.type('form');
+    if (!type) this.type('form');
     type = this._header['content-type'];
     if (type === 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded') {
       this._data = this._data ? `${this._data}&${data}` : data;
@@ -639,7 +637,7 @@ RequestBase.prototype.send = function(data) {
   }
 
   // default to json
-  if (!type && !('content-type' in this._unset)) this.type('json');
+  if (!type) this.type('json');
   return this;
 };
 
diff --git a/test/node/basic.js b/test/node/basic.js
index 54bbcaf10..16448f120 100644
--- a/test/node/basic.js
+++ b/test/node/basic.js
@@ -67,43 +67,12 @@ describe('[node] request', () => {
   });
 
   describe('req.unset(field)', () => {
-    it('should remove a header added using set', done => {
+    it('should remove the header field', done => {
       request
         .post(`${base}/echo`)
-        .set('X-Header', 'value')
-        .unset('X-Header')
+        .unset('User-Agent')
         .end((err, res) => {
-          assert.equal(void 0, res.header['x-header']);
-          done();
-        });
-    });
-    it('should not prevent set from being used after to set the header again', done => {
-      request
-        .post(`${base}/echo`)
-        .set('X-Header', 'value 1')
-        .unset('X-Header')
-        .set('X-Header', 'value')
-        .end((err, res) => {
-          assert.equal('value', res.header['x-header']);
-          done();
-        });
-    });
-    it('should prevent the Accept-Encoding header from being added automatically', done => {
-      request
-        .post(`${base}/echo`)
-        .unset('Accept-Encoding')
-        .end((err, res) => {
-          assert.equal(void 0, res.header['accept-encoding']);
-          done();
-        });
-    });
-    it('should prevent the Content-Type field from being added automatically', done => {
-      request
-        .post(`${base}/echo`)
-        .send('hello=world')
-        .unset('Content-Type')
-        .end((err, res) => {
-          assert.equal(void 0, res.header['content-type']);
+          assert.equal(void 0, res.header['user-agent']);
           done();
         });
     });