diff --git a/pandas/tools/plotting.py b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
index 34754a23ba5b4..caa685340c0e5 100644
--- a/pandas/tools/plotting.py
+++ b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
@@ -902,7 +902,7 @@ def _maybe_add_color(kwargs, style, i):
 
                 _maybe_add_color(kwds, style, i)
 
-                label = com.pprint_thing(label).encode('utf-8')
+                label = com.pprint_thing(label)
 
                 mask = com.isnull(y)
                 if mask.any():