diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py b/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py
index 3dbeb235f..6b3d2bcda 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py
@@ -105,24 +105,24 @@ class CsvItemExporter(BaseItemExporter):
         self._configure(kwargs, dont_fail=True)
         self.include_headers_line = include_headers_line
         self.csv_writer = csv.writer(file, **kwargs)
-        self._header_written = False
+        self._headers_written = False
 
     def export_item(self, item):
-        if not self._header_written:
-            self._write_header(item)
-
+        self._write_headers_and_set_fields_to_export(item)
         fields = self._get_serialized_fields(item, default_value='', \
             include_empty=True)
-
         values = [x[1] for x in fields]
         self.csv_writer.writerow(values)
 
-    def _write_header(self, item):
-        self._header_written = True
-        if self.include_headers_line:
-            if not self.fields_to_export:
-                self.fields_to_export = item.fields.keys()
-            self.csv_writer.writerow(self.fields_to_export)
+    def _write_headers_and_set_fields_to_export(self, item):
+        if self._headers_written:
+            return
+        self._headers_written = True
+        if not self.include_headers_line:
+            return
+        if not self.fields_to_export:
+            self.fields_to_export = item.fields.keys()
+        self.csv_writer.writerow(self.fields_to_export)
 
 
 class PickleItemExporter(BaseItemExporter):