diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index bd454cb..3a0cff9 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ charset = ["encoding"]
 tls = ["rustls", "webpki", "webpki-roots"]
 
 [dependencies]
-ascii = "1"
 base64 = "0.10"
 chunked_transfer = "1"
 cookie = { version = "0.12", features = ["percent-encode"] }
diff --git a/src/header.rs b/src/header.rs
index 9ebdf88..4c96159 100644
--- a/src/header.rs
+++ b/src/header.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,10 @@
 use crate::error::Error;
-use ascii::{AsAsciiStr, AsciiString};
 use std::str::FromStr;
 
 #[derive(Clone)]
 /// Wrapper type for a header line.
 pub struct Header {
-    line: AsciiString,
+    line: String,
     index: usize,
 }
 
@@ -17,8 +16,7 @@ impl ::std::fmt::Debug for Header {
 
 impl Header {
     pub fn new(name: &str, value: &str) -> Self {
-        let s = format!("{}: {}", name, value);
-        let line = unsafe { s.as_ascii_str_unchecked().to_owned() };
+        let line = format!("{}: {}", name, value);
         let index = name.len();
         Header { line, index }
     }
@@ -88,7 +86,7 @@ impl FromStr for Header {
     type Err = Error;
     fn from_str(s: &str) -> Result<Self, Self::Err> {
         //
-        let line = AsciiString::from_str(s).map_err(|_| Error::BadHeader)?;
+        let line = s.to_string();
         let index = s.find(':').ok_or_else(|| Error::BadHeader)?;
 
         // no value?
diff --git a/src/response.rs b/src/response.rs
index 910c30f..def046e 100644
--- a/src/response.rs
+++ b/src/response.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 use std::io::{Cursor, Error as IoError, ErrorKind, Read, Result as IoResult};
 use std::str::FromStr;
 
-use ascii::AsciiString;
 use chunked_transfer::Decoder as ChunkDecoder;
 
 use crate::error::Error;
@@ -40,7 +39,7 @@ pub const DEFAULT_CHARACTER_SET: &str = "utf-8";
 pub struct Response {
     url: Option<String>,
     error: Option<Error>,
-    status_line: AsciiString,
+    status_line: String,
     index: (usize, usize), // index into status_line where we split: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     status: u16,
     headers: Vec<Header>,
@@ -117,7 +116,7 @@ impl Response {
     pub fn headers_names(&self) -> Vec<String> {
         self.headers
             .iter()
-            .map(|h| h.name().to_ascii_lowercase())
+            .map(|h| h.name().to_lowercase())
             .collect()
     }
 
@@ -513,7 +512,7 @@ pub(crate) fn set_stream(resp: &mut Response, url: String, unit: Option<Unit>, s
     resp.stream = Some(stream);
 }
 
-fn read_next_line<R: Read>(reader: &mut R) -> IoResult<AsciiString> {
+fn read_next_line<R: Read>(reader: &mut R) -> IoResult<String> {
     let mut buf = Vec::new();
     let mut prev_byte_was_cr = false;
 
@@ -527,7 +526,7 @@ fn read_next_line<R: Read>(reader: &mut R) -> IoResult<AsciiString> {
 
         if byte == b'\n' && prev_byte_was_cr {
             buf.pop(); // removing the '\r'
-            return AsciiString::from_ascii(buf)
+            return String::from_utf8(buf)
                 .map_err(|_| IoError::new(ErrorKind::InvalidInput, "Header is not in ASCII"));
         }
 
diff --git a/src/test/simple.rs b/src/test/simple.rs
index fe4c2c8..d8e879c 100644
--- a/src/test/simple.rs
+++ b/src/test/simple.rs
@@ -134,9 +134,10 @@ fn non_ascii_header() {
     let resp = get("test://host/non_ascii_header")
         .set("Bäd", "Headör")
         .call();
-    assert!(!resp.ok());
-    assert_eq!(resp.status(), 500);
-    assert_eq!(resp.status_text(), "Bad Header");
+    // surprisingly, this is ok, because this lib is not about enforcing standards.
+    assert!(resp.ok());
+    assert_eq!(resp.status(), 200);
+    assert_eq!(resp.status_text(), "OK");
 }
 
 #[test]