diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index a4d2925f..1067b5e2 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
     "abbrev": "^1.0.5",
     "conventional-changelog": "0.0.11",
     "error-first-handler": "^1.0.1",
+    "git-head": "^1.0.0",
     "github": "^0.2.3",
     "github-url-from-git": "^1.4.0",
     "ini": "^1.3.2",
diff --git a/src/post.js b/src/post.js
index b97376e0..b166f934 100644
--- a/src/post.js
+++ b/src/post.js
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 'use strict'
 
-var exec = require('child_process').exec
 var readFile = require('fs').readFileSync
 var url = require('url')
 
 var changelog = require('conventional-changelog')
+var gitHead = require('git-head')
 var GitHubApi = require('github')
 var parseSlug = require('parse-github-repo-url')
 var parseUrl = require('github-url-from-git')
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ module.exports = function (options, cb) {
     repository: parseUrl(repository),
     file: false
   }, efh(cb)(function (log) {
-    exec('git rev-parse HEAD', efh(cb)(function (hash) {
+    gitHead(efh(cb)(function (hash) {
       var ghRepo = parseSlug(repository)
       var release = {
         owner: ghRepo[0],
diff --git a/tests/scenarios/postpublish.js b/tests/scenarios/postpublish.js
index f0905086..cd644f35 100644
--- a/tests/scenarios/postpublish.js
+++ b/tests/scenarios/postpublish.js
@@ -25,18 +25,31 @@ module.exports = function (test, createModule) {
     }
   }, efh()(function (name, cwd) {
     test('postpublish', function (t) {
-      t.test('publish new version to github releases', function (t) {
-        t.plan(1)
-
-        nixt()
+      var base = nixt()
           .cwd(cwd)
           .env('CI', true)
           .env('GH_URL', 'http://127.0.0.1:4343/')
           .env('GH_TOKEN', '***')
           .exec('git commit --allow-empty -m "feat(cool): the next big thing"')
-          .run('npm run postpublish')
           .code(0)
           .stdout(/> semantic-release post\n\nGenerating changelog from.*\nParsed/m)
+
+      t.test('publish new version to github releases', function (t) {
+        t.plan(1)
+
+        base.clone()
+          .run('npm run postpublish')
+          .end(function(err) {
+            t.error(err, 'nixt')
+          })
+      })
+
+      t.test('publish new version (with detached HEAD) to github releases', function (t) {
+        t.plan(1)
+
+        base.clone()
+          .exec('git checkout `git rev-parse HEAD`')
+          .run('npm run postpublish')
           .end(function(err) {
             t.error(err, 'nixt')
           })
@@ -49,7 +62,7 @@ module.exports = function (test, createModule) {
           t.error(err, 'github')
           t.is(res.tag_name, 'v2.0.0', 'version')
           t.is(res.author.login, 'user', 'user')
-          t.ok(/\n\n\n#### Features\n\n\* \*\*cool:\*\* the next big thing/.test(res.body), 'body')
+          t.ok(/\n\n\n#### Features\n\n\* \*\*cool:\*\*\n.*the next big thing/.test(res.body), 'body')
         })
       })
     })