diff --git a/jupyterhub/handlers/base.py b/jupyterhub/handlers/base.py
index c54a8c12..f2f53b25 100644
--- a/jupyterhub/handlers/base.py
+++ b/jupyterhub/handlers/base.py
@@ -1377,6 +1377,7 @@ class UserUrlHandler(BaseHandler):
         if self.subdomain_host:
             target = user.host + target
 
+        referer = self.request.headers.get('Referer', '')
         # record redirect count in query parameter
         if redirects:
             self.log.warning("Redirect loop detected on %s", self.request.uri)
@@ -1388,7 +1389,8 @@ class UserUrlHandler(BaseHandler):
             query_parts['redirects'] = redirects + 1
             url_parts = url_parts._replace(query=urlencode(query_parts, doseq=True))
             target = urlunparse(url_parts)
-        else:
+        elif '/user/' in referer:
+            # add first counter only if it's a redirect from /user/:name -> /hub/user/:name
             target = url_concat(target, {'redirects': 1})
 
         self.redirect(target)