diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5b07aa7d..f2cc5d03 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -45,8 +45,14 @@ $payload = [
  */
 $jwt = JWT::encode($payload, $key, 'HS256');
 $decoded = JWT::decode($jwt, new Key($key, 'HS256'));
+print_r($decoded);
+
+// Pass a stdClass in as the third parameter to get the decoded header values
+$decoded = JWT::decode($jwt, new Key($key, 'HS256'), $headers = new stdClass());
+print_r($headers);
 
 print_r($decoded);
+print_r($headers);
 
 /*
  NOTE: This will now be an object instead of an associative array. To get
diff --git a/src/JWT.php b/src/JWT.php
index 7e190a3e..7ffb9852 100644
--- a/src/JWT.php
+++ b/src/JWT.php
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ class JWT
      *                                                                      Supported algorithms are 'ES384','ES256',
      *                                                                      'HS256', 'HS384', 'HS512', 'RS256', 'RS384'
      *                                                                      and 'RS512'.
+     * @param stdClass               $headers                               Optional. Populates stdClass with headers.
      *
      * @return stdClass The JWT's payload as a PHP object
      *
@@ -94,7 +95,8 @@ class JWT
      */
     public static function decode(
         string $jwt,
-        $keyOrKeyArray
+        $keyOrKeyArray,
+        stdClass &$headers = null
     ): stdClass {
         // Validate JWT
         $timestamp = \is_null(static::$timestamp) ? \time() : static::$timestamp;
@@ -111,6 +113,9 @@ public static function decode(
         if (null === ($header = static::jsonDecode($headerRaw))) {
             throw new UnexpectedValueException('Invalid header encoding');
         }
+        if ($headers !== null) {
+            $headers = $header;
+        }
         $payloadRaw = static::urlsafeB64Decode($bodyb64);
         if (null === ($payload = static::jsonDecode($payloadRaw))) {
             throw new UnexpectedValueException('Invalid claims encoding');
diff --git a/tests/JWTTest.php b/tests/JWTTest.php
index a5721d98..7d49bf04 100644
--- a/tests/JWTTest.php
+++ b/tests/JWTTest.php
@@ -397,4 +397,19 @@ public function testEncodeDecodeWithResource()
 
         $this->assertSame('bar', $decoded->foo);
     }
+
+    public function testGetHeaders()
+    {
+        $payload = [
+            'message' => 'abc',
+            'exp' => time() + JWT::$leeway + 20, // time in the future
+        ];
+        $headers = new stdClass();
+
+        $encoded = JWT::encode($payload, 'my_key', 'HS256');
+        JWT::decode($encoded, new Key('my_key', 'HS256'), $headers);
+
+        $this->assertEquals($headers->typ, 'JWT');
+        $this->assertEquals($headers->alg, 'HS256');
+    }
 }