diff --git a/timm/models/hrnet.py b/timm/models/hrnet.py
index 20ea7674..d00adfa1 100644
--- a/timm/models/hrnet.py
+++ b/timm/models/hrnet.py
@@ -862,12 +862,17 @@ def _create_hrnet(variant, pretrained=False, cfg_variant=None, **model_kwargs):
         kwargs_filter = ('num_classes', 'global_pool')
         features_only = True
     cfg_variant = cfg_variant or variant
+
+    pretrained_strict = model_kwargs.pop(
+        'pretrained_strict',
+        not features_only and model_kwargs.get('head', 'classification') == 'classification'
+    )
     model = build_model_with_cfg(
         model_cls,
         variant,
         pretrained,
         model_cfg=cfg_cls[cfg_variant],
-        pretrained_strict=not features_only,
+        pretrained_strict=pretrained_strict,
         kwargs_filter=kwargs_filter,
         **model_kwargs,
     )