diff --git a/lib/resources/http.rb b/lib/resources/http.rb
index 82f02238e..c07985d34 100644
--- a/lib/resources/http.rb
+++ b/lib/resources/http.rb
@@ -203,7 +203,17 @@ module Inspec::Resources
         end
 
         def curl_command # rubocop:disable Metrics/AbcSize
-          cmd = ["curl -i -X #{http_method}"]
+          cmd = ['curl -i']
+
+          # Use curl's --head option when the method requested is HEAD. Otherwise,
+          # the user may experience a timeout when curl does not properly close
+          # the connection after the response is received.
+          if http_method.casecmp('HEAD') == 0
+            cmd << '--head'
+          else
+            cmd << "-X #{http_method}"
+          end
+
           cmd << "--connect-timeout #{open_timeout}"
           cmd << "--max-time #{open_timeout+read_timeout}"
           cmd << "--user \'#{username}:#{password}\'" unless username.nil? || password.nil?
diff --git a/test/helper.rb b/test/helper.rb
index 2fc28562a..bd116ed96 100644
--- a/test/helper.rb
+++ b/test/helper.rb
@@ -459,6 +459,7 @@ class MockLoader
       'f77ebcedaf6fbe8f02d2f9d4735a90c12311d2ca4b43ece9efa2f2e396491747' => cmd.call('http-remote-post'),
       "curl -i -X GET --connect-timeout 60 --max-time 120 -H 'accept: application/json' -H 'foo: bar' 'http://www.example.com'" => cmd.call('http-remote-headers'),
       "curl -i -X GET --connect-timeout 60 --max-time 120 'http://www.example.com?a=b&c=d'" => cmd.call('http-remote-params'),
+      "curl -i --head --connect-timeout 60 --max-time 120 'http://www.example.com'" => cmd.call('http-remote-head-request'),
 
       # elasticsearch resource
       "curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://localhost:9200/_nodes" => cmd.call('elasticsearch-cluster-nodes-default'),
diff --git a/test/unit/mock/cmd/http-remote-head-request b/test/unit/mock/cmd/http-remote-head-request
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e97caa874
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/mock/cmd/http-remote-head-request
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
+Location: http://www.google.com/
+Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
+Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2017 16:46:15 GMT
+Expires: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 16:46:15 GMT
+Cache-Control: public, max-age=2592000
+Server: gws
+Content-Length: 219
+X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
+X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
diff --git a/test/unit/resources/http_test.rb b/test/unit/resources/http_test.rb
index cca00d30f..84128f7e8 100644
--- a/test/unit/resources/http_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/resources/http_test.rb
@@ -118,5 +118,14 @@ describe 'Inspec::Resources::Http' do
         _(worker.body).must_equal 'params ok'
       end
     end
+
+    describe 'a HEAD request' do
+      let(:http_method) { 'HEAD' }
+
+      it 'returns correct data' do
+        _(worker.status).must_equal 301
+        _(worker.response_headers['Location']).must_equal 'http://www.google.com/'
+      end
+    end
   end
 end