diff --git a/R/layers2traces.R b/R/layers2traces.R
index ecbedfdf8e..12d65727d8 100644
--- a/R/layers2traces.R
+++ b/R/layers2traces.R
@@ -242,15 +242,36 @@ to_basic.GeomStep <- function(data, prestats_data, layout, params, p, ...) {
 
 #' @export
 to_basic.GeomSegment <- function(data, prestats_data, layout, params, p, ...) {
-  # Every row is one segment, we convert to a line with several
-  # groups which can be efficiently drawn by adding NA rows.
+  if (grid::is.unit(params$arrow$length)) {
+    # arrows are an extension of the line segment, and we know the arrow length
+    # (think r in polar coordinates), so we find the angle of the segment 
+    # wrt to x-axis (i.e., theta in polar)
+    thetas <- atan2(abs(data$y - data$yend), abs(data$x - data$xend))
+    arrowLength <- unitConvert(params$arrow$length, "npc", "width")
+    lay <- tidyr::gather_(layout, "variable", "x", c("x_min", "x_max"))
+    # arrow length on the data scale
+    r <- arrowLength * diff(lay$x) * 10
+    # do everything in radians
+    arrowAngle <- (params$arrow$angle / 2) * (pi / 180)
+    data$x1 <- data$xend + sign(data$x - data$xend) * r * cos(thetas + arrowAngle)
+    data$x2 <- data$xend + sign(data$x - data$xend) * r * cos(thetas - arrowAngle)
+    data$y1 <- data$yend + sign(data$y - data$yend) * r * sin(thetas + arrowAngle)
+    data$y2 <- data$yend + sign(data$y - data$yend) * r * sin(thetas - arrowAngle)
+    # probably wrong
+    #R <- r / cos(arrowAngle / 2)
+    #data$xside1 <- data$xArrowBase + R * cos(arrowAngle / 2)
+    #data$yside1 <- data$yArrowBase + R * sin(arrowAngle / 2)
+    #data$xside2 <- data$xArrowBase + R * cos(-arrowAngle / 2)
+    #data$yside2 <- data$yArrowBase + R * sin(-arrowAngle / 2)
+  }
+  ## TODO: group by PANEL at least!
   data$group <- seq_len(nrow(data))
-  others <- data[!names(data) %in% c("x", "y", "xend", "yend")]
-  data <- with(data, {
-    rbind(cbind(x, y, others),
-          cbind(x = xend, y = yend, others))
-  })
-  prefix_class(data, "GeomPath")
+  data$x <- NULL
+  data$y <- NULL
+  d <- tidyr::gather_(data, "variable", "x", c("x1", "x2", "xend"))
+  d$y <- tidyr::gather_(data, "variable", "y", c("y1", "y2", "yend"))$y
+  d <- d[order(d$group), ]
+  prefix_class(d, "GeomPolygon")
 }
 
 #' @export