diff --git a/benchmark/http/incoming_headers.js b/benchmark/http/incoming_headers.js
index f10178c1891805..810c92687bd981 100644
--- a/benchmark/http/incoming_headers.js
+++ b/benchmark/http/incoming_headers.js
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@ const common = require('../common.js');
 const http = require('http');
 
 const bench = common.createBenchmark(main, {
-  // Unicode confuses ab on os x.
-  c: [50, 500],
-  n: [0, 5, 20]
+  c: [50],     // Concurrent connections
+  n: [20],     // Number of header lines to append after the common headers
+  w: [0, 6],   // Amount of trailing whitespace
 });
 
-function main({ c, n }) {
+function main({ c, n, w }) {
   const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
     res.end();
   });
@@ -22,7 +22,12 @@ function main({ c, n }) {
       'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'
     };
     for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
-      headers[`foo${i}`] = `some header value ${i}`;
+      // Note:
+      // - autocannon does not send header values with OWS
+      // - wrk can only send trailing OWS. This is a side-effect of wrk
+      // processing requests with http-parser before sending them, causing
+      // leading OWS to be stripped.
+      headers[`foo${i}`] = `some header value ${i}${' \t'.repeat(w / 2)}`;
     }
     bench.http({
       path: '/',
diff --git a/src/node_http_parser.cc b/src/node_http_parser.cc
index 5e1da912e0c31e..a8c48999c57901 100644
--- a/src/node_http_parser.cc
+++ b/src/node_http_parser.cc
@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ const uint32_t kOnExecute = 4;
 // Any more fields than this will be flushed into JS
 const size_t kMaxHeaderFieldsCount = 32;
 
+inline bool IsOWS(char c) {
+  return c == ' ' || c == '\t';
+}
+
 // helper class for the Parser
 struct StringPtr {
   StringPtr() {
@@ -136,13 +140,22 @@ struct StringPtr {
 
 
   Local<String> ToString(Environment* env) const {
-    if (str_)
+    if (size_ != 0)
       return OneByteString(env->isolate(), str_, size_);
     else
       return String::Empty(env->isolate());
   }
 
 
+  // Strip trailing OWS (SPC or HTAB) from string.
+  Local<String> ToTrimmedString(Environment* env) {
+    while (size_ > 0 && IsOWS(str_[size_ - 1])) {
+      size_--;
+    }
+    return ToString(env);
+  }
+
+
   const char* str_;
   bool on_heap_;
   size_t size_;
@@ -730,7 +743,7 @@ class Parser : public AsyncWrap, public StreamListener {
 
     for (size_t i = 0; i < num_values_; ++i) {
       headers_v[i * 2] = fields_[i].ToString(env());
-      headers_v[i * 2 + 1] = values_[i].ToString(env());
+      headers_v[i * 2 + 1] = values_[i].ToTrimmedString(env());
     }
 
     return Array::New(env()->isolate(), headers_v, num_values_ * 2);
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-http-header-owstext.js b/test/parallel/test-http-header-owstext.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..bc094137a29e5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-http-header-owstext.js
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common');
+
+// This test ensures that the http-parser strips leading and trailing OWS from
+// header values. It sends the header values in chunks to force the parser to
+// build the string up through multiple calls to on_header_value().
+
+const assert = require('assert');
+const http = require('http');
+const net = require('net');
+
+function check(hdr, snd, rcv) {
+  const server = http.createServer(common.mustCall((req, res) => {
+    assert.strictEqual(req.headers[hdr], rcv);
+    req.pipe(res);
+  }));
+
+  server.listen(0, common.mustCall(function() {
+    const client = net.connect(this.address().port, start);
+    function start() {
+      client.write('GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n' + hdr + ':', drain);
+    }
+
+    function drain() {
+      if (snd.length === 0) {
+        return client.write('\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n');
+      }
+      client.write(snd.shift(), drain);
+    }
+
+    const bufs = [];
+    client.on('data', function(chunk) {
+      bufs.push(chunk);
+    });
+    client.on('end', common.mustCall(function() {
+      const head = Buffer.concat(bufs)
+        .toString('latin1')
+        .split('\r\n')[0];
+      assert.strictEqual(head, 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK');
+      server.close();
+    }));
+  }));
+}
+
+check('host', [' \t foo.com\t'], 'foo.com');
+check('host', [' \t foo\tcom\t'], 'foo\tcom');
+check('host', [' \t', ' ', ' foo.com\t', '\t '], 'foo.com');
+check('host', [' \t', ' \t'.repeat(100), '\t '], '');
+check('host', [' \t', ' - - - -   ', '\t '], '- - - -');