diff --git a/src/main/java/com/metamx/common/parsers/CSVParser.java b/src/main/java/com/metamx/common/parsers/CSVParser.java
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/metamx/common/parsers/CSVParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/metamx/common/parsers/CSVParser.java
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ public class CSVParser implements Parser<String, Object> {
   }
 
   public CSVParser(String header) throws IOException {
-    setFieldNames(Arrays.asList(parser.parseLine(header)));
+    setFieldNames(header);
   }
 
   @Override
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ public class CSVParser implements Parser<String, Object> {
     this.fieldNames = Lists.newArrayList(fieldNames);
   }
 
+  public void setFieldNames(String header) throws IOException {
+    setFieldNames(Arrays.asList(parser.parseLine(header)));
+  }
+
   @Override
   public Map<String, Object> parse(String input) throws IOException
   {
Allow passing header row to setFieldNames for consistency with DelimitedParser