diff --git a/environment_indicator.module b/environment_indicator.module
index 56e6aba..454986c 100644
--- a/environment_indicator.module
+++ b/environment_indicator.module
@@ -493,21 +493,18 @@ function _environment_indicator_has_old_vars() {
  * Implements hook_environment_indicator_matched_indicator_alter().
  */
 function environment_indicator_environment_indicator_matched_indicator_alter(&$environment_info) {
-  // Show the git branch.
-  if (variable_get('environment_indicator_git_support', TRUE) && command_exists('git')) {
-    // Git exists.
-    $git_path = exec('git rev-parse --show-toplevel');
-    $stringfromfile = file($git_path . '/.git/HEAD', FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH);
-    $stringfromfile = $stringfromfile[0]; //get the string from the array
-    $explodedstring = explode("/", $stringfromfile); //seperate out by the "/" in the string
-    $branchname = $explodedstring[2]; //get the one that is always the branch name
-    if (!empty($branchname)) {
-      $environment_info['git_branch'] = $branchname;
+  // Show the git branch, if it exists.
+  if (variable_get('environment_indicator_git_support', TRUE) && command_exists('git') && $git_path = exec('git rev-parse --show-toplevel')) {
+    // The first line of the .git/HEAD file contains a reference to the branch
+    // in a string like: ref: refs/heads/[branch]
+    $git_head_file = file($git_path . '/.git/HEAD', FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH);
+    (NULL, NULL, $branch_name) = explode('/', array_shift($git_head_file));
+    if (!empty($branch_name)) {
+      $environment_info['git_branch'] = $branch_name;
     }
   }
-  // Acquia cloud environments don't have a .git directory to check. Instead of
-  // that we need to maintain the release string ourselves using the post deploy
-  // hooks.
+  // Acquia cloud environments don't have a .git directory to check. Instead, we
+  // need to maintain the release string ourselves using the post deploy hooks.
   if (!empty($_ENV['AH_SITE_ENVIRONMENT']) && variable_get('environment_indicator_git_support', TRUE)) {
     // Display the contents of the variable if it is not empty. If it is empty
     // then a warning should be set in the status report about the hook being