diff --git a/scrapy/loader/__init__.py b/scrapy/loader/__init__.py
index f2c43ab4c..431f4d44b 100644
--- a/scrapy/loader/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/loader/__init__.py
@@ -50,18 +50,19 @@ class ItemLoader(object):
         else:
             return self._local_item
 
-    def nested_loader(self, xpath=None, css=None):
-        if xpath is not None and css is not None:
-            raise ValueError("Cannot nest a loader with both a xpath selector and a css selector")
-
-        if xpath is not None:
-            selector = self.selector.xpath(xpath)
-
-        if css is not None:
-            selector = self.selector.css(css)
-
+    def nested_xpath(self, xpath, **context):
+        selector = self.selector.xpath(xpath)
+        context.update(selector=selector)
         subloader = self.__class__(
-            item=self.item, selector=selector, parent=self
+            item=self.item, parent=self, **context
+        )
+        return subloader
+
+    def nested_css(self, css, **context):
+        selector = self.selector.css(css)
+        context.update(selector=selector)
+        subloader = self.__class__(
+            item=self.item, parent=self, **context
         )
         return subloader
 
diff --git a/tests/test_loader.py b/tests/test_loader.py
index 90273c2c8..2693a18d9 100644
--- a/tests/test_loader.py
+++ b/tests/test_loader.py
@@ -631,7 +631,7 @@ class SubselectorLoaderTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_nested_xpath(self):
         l = NestedItemLoader(response=self.response)
-        nl = l.nested_loader(xpath="//header")
+        nl = l.nested_xpath("//header")
         nl.add_xpath('name', 'div/text()')
         nl.add_css('name_div', '#id')
         nl.add_value('name_value', nl.selector.xpath('div[@id = "id"]/text()').extract())
@@ -646,7 +646,7 @@ class SubselectorLoaderTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_nested_css(self):
         l = NestedItemLoader(response=self.response)
-        nl = l.nested_loader(css="header")
+        nl = l.nested_css("header")
         nl.add_xpath('name', 'div/text()')
         nl.add_css('name_div', '#id')
         nl.add_value('name_value', nl.selector.xpath('div[@id = "id"]/text()').extract())
@@ -661,8 +661,8 @@ class SubselectorLoaderTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_nested_replace(self):
         l = NestedItemLoader(response=self.response)
-        nl1 = l.nested_loader(xpath='//footer')
-        nl2 = nl1.nested_loader(xpath='a')
+        nl1 = l.nested_xpath('//footer')
+        nl2 = nl1.nested_xpath('a')
 
         l.add_xpath('url', '//footer/a/@href')
         self.assertEqual(l.get_output_value('url'), [u'http://www.scrapy.org'])
@@ -673,8 +673,8 @@ class SubselectorLoaderTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_nested_ordering(self):
         l = NestedItemLoader(response=self.response)
-        nl1 = l.nested_loader(xpath='//footer')
-        nl2 = nl1.nested_loader(xpath='a')
+        nl1 = l.nested_xpath('//footer')
+        nl2 = nl1.nested_xpath('a')
 
         nl1.add_xpath('url', 'img/@src')
         l.add_xpath('url', '//footer/a/@href')
@@ -690,8 +690,8 @@ class SubselectorLoaderTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_nested_load_item(self):
         l = NestedItemLoader(response=self.response)
-        nl1 = l.nested_loader(xpath='//footer')
-        nl2 = nl1.nested_loader(xpath='img')
+        nl1 = l.nested_xpath('//footer')
+        nl2 = nl1.nested_xpath('img')
 
         l.add_xpath('name', '//header/div/text()')
         nl1.add_xpath('url', 'a/@href')
@@ -707,11 +707,6 @@ class SubselectorLoaderTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(item['url'], [u'http://www.scrapy.org'])
         self.assertEqual(item['image'], [u'/images/logo.png'])
 
-    def test_nested_bad_arguments(self):
-        l = NestedItemLoader(response=self.response)
-        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
-            l.nested_loader(css="#id", xpath="//footer")
-
 
 class SelectJmesTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         test_list_equals = {