diff --git a/lib/querystring.js b/lib/querystring.js
index d7c642f1019..80154696369 100644
--- a/lib/querystring.js
+++ b/lib/querystring.js
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ function charCode (c) {
 
 
 // a safe fast alternative to decodeURIComponent
-QueryString.unescape = function (s, decodeSpaces) {
+QueryString.unescapeBuffer = function (s, decodeSpaces) {
   var out = new Buffer(s.length);
   var state = "CHAR"; // states: CHAR, HEX0, HEX1
   var n, m, hexchar;
@@ -72,7 +72,12 @@ QueryString.unescape = function (s, decodeSpaces) {
 
   // TODO support returning arbitrary buffers.
 
-  return out.toString('utf8', 0, outIndex-1);
+  return out.slice(0, outIndex-1);
+};
+
+
+QueryString.unescape = function (s, decodeSpaces) {
+  return QueryString.unescapeBuffer(s, decodeSpaces).toString();
 };