diff --git a/mercurial/commands.py b/mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py
@@ -1349,7 +1349,7 @@ def commit(ui, repo, *pats, **opts):
 
     if not opts.get('close_branch'):
         for r in parents:
-            if r.extra().get('close') and r.branch() == branch:
+            if r.closesbranch() and r.branch() == branch:
                 ui.status(_('reopening closed branch head %d\n') % r)
 
     if ui.debugflag:
@@ -5414,7 +5414,7 @@ def summary(ui, repo, **opts):
         t += _(' (merge)')
     elif branch != parents[0].branch():
         t += _(' (new branch)')
-    elif (parents[0].extra().get('close') and
+    elif (parents[0].closesbranch() and
           pnode in repo.branchheads(branch, closed=True)):
         t += _(' (head closed)')
     elif not (st[0] or st[1] or st[2] or st[3] or st[4] or st[9]):
diff --git a/mercurial/context.py b/mercurial/context.py
--- a/mercurial/context.py
+++ b/mercurial/context.py
@@ -186,6 +186,8 @@ class changectx(object):
         return self._changeset[4]
     def branch(self):
         return encoding.tolocal(self._changeset[5].get("branch"))
+    def closesbranch(self):
+        return 'close' in self._changeset[5]
     def extra(self):
         return self._changeset[5]
     def tags(self):
@@ -895,6 +897,8 @@ class workingctx(changectx):
         return self._clean
     def branch(self):
         return encoding.tolocal(self._extra['branch'])
+    def closesbranch(self):
+        return 'close' in self._extra
     def extra(self):
         return self._extra
 
diff --git a/mercurial/hgweb/webcommands.py b/mercurial/hgweb/webcommands.py
--- a/mercurial/hgweb/webcommands.py
+++ b/mercurial/hgweb/webcommands.py
@@ -441,7 +441,7 @@ def branches(web, req, tmpl):
     tips = (web.repo[n] for t, n in web.repo.branchtags().iteritems())
     heads = web.repo.heads()
     parity = paritygen(web.stripecount)
-    sortkey = lambda ctx: ('close' not in ctx.extra(), ctx.rev())
+    sortkey = lambda ctx: (not ctx.closesbranch(), ctx.rev())
 
     def entries(limit, **map):
         count = 0
diff --git a/mercurial/localrepo.py b/mercurial/localrepo.py
--- a/mercurial/localrepo.py
+++ b/mercurial/localrepo.py
@@ -511,7 +511,7 @@ class localrepository(repo.repository):
         '''return the tipmost branch head in heads'''
         tip = heads[-1]
         for h in reversed(heads):
-            if 'close' not in self.changelog.read(h)[5]:
+            if not self[h].closesbranch():
                 tip = h
                 break
         return tip
@@ -1555,8 +1555,7 @@ class localrepository(repo.repository):
             fbheads = set(self.changelog.nodesbetween([start], bheads)[2])
             bheads = [h for h in bheads if h in fbheads]
         if not closed:
-            bheads = [h for h in bheads if
-                      ('close' not in self.changelog.read(h)[5])]
+            bheads = [h for h in bheads if not self[h].closesbranch()]
         return bheads
 
     def branches(self, nodes):
@@ -2206,7 +2205,7 @@ class localrepository(repo.repository):
                 heads = cl.heads()
                 dh = len(heads) - len(oldheads)
                 for h in heads:
-                    if h not in oldheads and 'close' in self[h].extra():
+                    if h not in oldheads and self[h].closesbranch():
                         dh -= 1
             htext = ""
             if dh:
diff --git a/mercurial/revset.py b/mercurial/revset.py
--- a/mercurial/revset.py
+++ b/mercurial/revset.py
@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ def closed(repo, subset, x):
     """
     # i18n: "closed" is a keyword
     getargs(x, 0, 0, _("closed takes no arguments"))
-    return [r for r in subset if repo[r].extra().get('close')]
+    return [r for r in subset if repo[r].closesbranch()]
 
 def contains(repo, subset, x):
     """``contains(pattern)``