diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index f1cf571fcd..6d65033e44 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -155,6 +155,13 @@ color::
        `reverse`.  The first color given is the foreground; the
        second is the background.  The position of the attribute, if
        any, doesn't matter.
++
+The attributes are meant to be reset at the beginning of each item
+in the colored output, so setting color.decorate.branch to `black`
+will paint that branch name in a plain `black`, even if the previous
+thing on the same output line (e.g. opening parenthesis before the
+list of branch names in `log --decorate` output) is set to be
+painted with `bold` or some other attribute.
 
 
 Variables
diff --git a/log-tree.c b/log-tree.c
index 1982631ca4..11676d5235 100644
--- a/log-tree.c
+++ b/log-tree.c
@@ -200,6 +200,7 @@ void format_decorations(struct strbuf *sb,
 	while (decoration) {
 		strbuf_addstr(sb, color_commit);
 		strbuf_addstr(sb, prefix);
+		strbuf_addstr(sb, color_reset);
 		strbuf_addstr(sb, decorate_get_color(use_color, decoration->type));
 		if (decoration->type == DECORATION_REF_TAG)
 			strbuf_addstr(sb, "tag: ");
diff --git a/t/t4207-log-decoration-colors.sh b/t/t4207-log-decoration-colors.sh
index 925f577a3c..6b8ad4f5b0 100755
--- a/t/t4207-log-decoration-colors.sh
+++ b/t/t4207-log-decoration-colors.sh
@@ -44,15 +44,15 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 '
 
 cat >expected <<EOF
-${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_HEAD}HEAD${c_reset}${c_commit},\
- ${c_tag}tag: v1.0${c_reset}${c_commit},\
- ${c_tag}tag: B${c_reset}${c_commit},\
- ${c_branch}master${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset} B
-${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_tag}tag: A1${c_reset}${c_commit},\
- ${c_remoteBranch}other/master${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset} A1
-${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_stash}refs/stash${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset}\
+${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_reset}${c_HEAD}HEAD${c_reset}${c_commit},\
+ ${c_reset}${c_tag}tag: v1.0${c_reset}${c_commit},\
+ ${c_reset}${c_tag}tag: B${c_reset}${c_commit},\
+ ${c_reset}${c_branch}master${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset} B
+${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_reset}${c_tag}tag: A1${c_reset}${c_commit},\
+ ${c_reset}${c_remoteBranch}other/master${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset} A1
+${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_reset}${c_stash}refs/stash${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset}\
  On master: Changes to A.t
-${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_tag}tag: A${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset} A
+${c_commit}COMMIT_ID${c_reset}${c_commit} (${c_reset}${c_tag}tag: A${c_reset}${c_commit})${c_reset} A
 EOF
 
 # We want log to show all, but the second parent to refs/stash is irrelevant