diff --git a/include/pybind11/cast.h b/include/pybind11/cast.h
index 3934971..9e7b4dd 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/cast.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/cast.h
@@ -734,9 +734,14 @@
 #if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
             return load_bytes(load_src);
 #else
+            if (sizeof(CharT) == 1) {
+                return load_bytes(load_src);
+            }
+
             // The below is a guaranteed failure in Python 3 when PyUnicode_Check returns false
             if (!PYBIND11_BYTES_CHECK(load_src.ptr()))
                 return false;
+
             temp = reinterpret_steal<object>(PyUnicode_FromObject(load_src.ptr()));
             if (!temp) { PyErr_Clear(); return false; }
             load_src = temp;
@@ -780,9 +785,8 @@
 #endif
     }
 
-#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
-    // In Python 3, when loading into a std::string or char*, accept a bytes object as-is (i.e.
-    // without any encoding/decoding attempt).  For other C++ char sizes this is a no-op.  Python 2,
+    // When loading into a std::string or char*, accept a bytes object as-is (i.e.
+    // without any encoding/decoding attempt).  For other C++ char sizes this is a no-op.
     // which supports loading a unicode from a str, doesn't take this path.
     template <typename C = CharT>
     bool load_bytes(enable_if_t<sizeof(C) == 1, handle> src) {
@@ -798,9 +802,9 @@
 
         return false;
     }
+
     template <typename C = CharT>
     bool load_bytes(enable_if_t<sizeof(C) != 1, handle>) { return false; }
-#endif
 };
 
 // Type caster for C-style strings.  We basically use a std::string type caster, but also add the
diff --git a/tests/test_python_types.py b/tests/test_python_types.py
index 5e2761c..08bb3ab 100644
--- a/tests/test_python_types.py
+++ b/tests/test_python_types.py
@@ -554,6 +554,9 @@
     assert string_length(byte("a\x00b")) == 3
     assert strlen(byte("a\x00b")) == 1  # C-string limitation
 
+    # passing in a utf8 encoded string should work
+    assert string_length(u'💩'.encode("utf8")) == 4
+
 
 def test_builtins_cast_return_none():
     """Casters produced with PYBIND11_TYPE_CASTER() should convert nullptr to None"""