diff --git a/hgext/notify.py b/hgext/notify.py
--- a/hgext/notify.py
+++ b/hgext/notify.py
@@ -148,7 +148,6 @@ web.baseurl
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
 import email.errors as emailerrors
-import email.parser as emailparser
 import fnmatch
 import hashlib
 import socket
@@ -382,9 +381,8 @@ class notifier(object):
             )
             return
 
-        p = emailparser.Parser()
         try:
-            msg = p.parsestr(encoding.strfromlocal(data))
+            msg = mail.parsebytes(data)
         except emailerrors.MessageParseError as inst:
             raise error.Abort(inst)
 
diff --git a/mercurial/mail.py b/mercurial/mail.py
--- a/mercurial/mail.py
+++ b/mercurial/mail.py
@@ -440,6 +440,9 @@ if pycompat.ispy3:
         finally:
             fp.detach()
 
+    def parsebytes(data):
+        ep = email.parser.BytesParser()
+        return ep.parsebytes(data)
 
 else:
 
@@ -449,6 +452,10 @@ else:
         ep = email.parser.Parser()
         return ep.parse(fp)
 
+    def parsebytes(data):
+        ep = email.parser.Parser()
+        return ep.parsestr(data)
+
 
 def headdecode(s):
     '''Decodes RFC-2047 header'''