diff --git a/dataframe-excel/src/main/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/xlsx.kt b/dataframe-excel/src/main/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/xlsx.kt
index ba114a5100..58807cc785 100644
--- a/dataframe-excel/src/main/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/xlsx.kt
+++ b/dataframe-excel/src/main/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/xlsx.kt
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ public fun DataFrame.Companion.readExcel(
             }
         }
     } else {
-        sheet.getRow(0).map { it.columnIndex }
+        sheet.getRow(skipRows).map { it.columnIndex }
     }
 
     val headerRow = sheet.getRow(skipRows)
diff --git a/dataframe-excel/src/test/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/XlsxTest.kt b/dataframe-excel/src/test/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/XlsxTest.kt
index 02a17b56d5..f1795b2a94 100644
--- a/dataframe-excel/src/test/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/XlsxTest.kt
+++ b/dataframe-excel/src/test/kotlin/org/jetbrains/kotlinx/dataframe/io/XlsxTest.kt
@@ -84,4 +84,10 @@ class XlsxTest {
         val df = DataFrame.readExcel(testResource("custom_header_position.xlsx"), skipRows = 1)
         df.columnNames() shouldBe listOf("header1", "header2")
     }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `consider skipRows when obtaining column indexes`() {
+        val df = DataFrame.readExcel(testResource("header.xlsx"), skipRows = 6)
+        df.columnNames() shouldBe listOf("Well", "Well Position", "Omit", "Sample Name", "Target Name", "Task", "Reporter", "Quencher")
+    }
 }
diff --git a/dataframe-excel/src/test/resources/header.xlsx b/dataframe-excel/src/test/resources/header.xlsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fcb2d012ab
Binary files /dev/null and b/dataframe-excel/src/test/resources/header.xlsx differ