diff --git a/components/layout/traversal.rs b/components/layout/traversal.rs
index 1362f1cb7b2..b1087e945d7 100644
--- a/components/layout/traversal.rs
+++ b/components/layout/traversal.rs
@@ -77,7 +77,9 @@ impl<'lc, N> DomTraversalContext<N> for RecalcStyleAndConstructFlows<'lc>
         recalc_style_at(&self.context, self.root, node);
     }
 
-    fn process_postorder(&self, node: N) { construct_flows_at(&self.context, self.root, node); }
+    fn process_postorder(&self, node: N) {
+        construct_flows_at(&self.context, self.root, node);
+    }
 }
 
 /// A bottom-up, parallelizable traversal.
@@ -96,7 +98,7 @@ fn construct_flows_at<'a, N: LayoutNode>(context: &'a LayoutContext<'a>, root: O
 
         // Always reconstruct if incremental layout is turned off.
         let nonincremental_layout = opts::get().nonincremental_layout;
-        if nonincremental_layout || node.has_dirty_descendants() {
+        if nonincremental_layout || node.is_dirty() || node.has_dirty_descendants() {
             let mut flow_constructor = FlowConstructor::new(context);
             if nonincremental_layout || !flow_constructor.repair_if_possible(&tnode) {
                 flow_constructor.process(&tnode);
diff --git a/components/script/dom/node.rs b/components/script/dom/node.rs
index 37495be3ba3..0e5e360c6e1 100644
--- a/components/script/dom/node.rs
+++ b/components/script/dom/node.rs
@@ -479,19 +479,7 @@ impl Node {
             return
         }
 
-        // 2. Dirty descendants.
-        fn dirty_subtree(node: &Node) {
-            // Stop if this subtree is already dirty.
-            if node.is_dirty() { return }
-
-            node.set_flag(IS_DIRTY | HAS_DIRTY_DESCENDANTS, true);
-
-            for kid in node.children() {
-                dirty_subtree(kid.r());
-            }
-        }
-
-        dirty_subtree(self);
+        self.set_flag(IS_DIRTY, true);
 
         // 4. Dirty ancestors.
         for ancestor in self.ancestors() {
diff --git a/components/style/traversal.rs b/components/style/traversal.rs
index 69521c1557a..c0d197896af 100644
--- a/components/style/traversal.rs
+++ b/components/style/traversal.rs
@@ -153,10 +153,24 @@ pub trait DomTraversalContext<N: TNode>  {
     ///
     /// Note that this is true unconditionally for servo, since it requires to
     /// bubble the widths bottom-up for all the DOM.
-    fn should_process(&self, _node: N) -> bool { true }
+    fn should_process(&self, node: N) -> bool {
+        node.is_dirty() || node.has_dirty_descendants()
+    }
 
     /// Do an action over the child before pushing him to the work queue.
-    fn pre_process_child_hook(&self, _parent: N, _kid: N) {}
+    ///
+    /// By default, propagate the IS_DIRTY flag down the tree.
+    #[allow(unsafe_code)]
+    fn pre_process_child_hook(&self, parent: N, kid: N) {
+        // NOTE: At this point is completely safe to modify either the parent or
+        // the child, since we have exclusive access to both of them.
+        if parent.is_dirty() {
+            unsafe {
+                kid.set_dirty(true);
+                parent.set_dirty_descendants(true);
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 /// Calculates the style for a single node.
diff --git a/ports/geckolib/traversal.rs b/ports/geckolib/traversal.rs
index 562153baf07..87b63e83e15 100644
--- a/ports/geckolib/traversal.rs
+++ b/ports/geckolib/traversal.rs
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ use context::StandaloneStyleContext;
 use std::mem;
 use style::context::SharedStyleContext;
 use style::dom::OpaqueNode;
-use style::dom::TNode;
 use style::traversal::{DomTraversalContext, recalc_style_at};
 use wrapper::GeckoNode;
 
@@ -37,21 +36,4 @@ impl<'lc, 'ln> DomTraversalContext<GeckoNode<'ln>> for RecalcStyleOnly<'lc> {
     }
 
     fn process_postorder(&self, _: GeckoNode<'ln>) {}
-
-    /// In Gecko we use this traversal just for restyling, so we can stop once
-    /// we know there aren't more dirty nodes under ourselves.
-    fn should_process(&self, node: GeckoNode<'ln>) -> bool {
-        node.is_dirty() || node.has_dirty_descendants()
-    }
-
-    fn pre_process_child_hook(&self, parent: GeckoNode<'ln>, kid: GeckoNode<'ln>) {
-        // NOTE: At this point is completely safe to modify either the parent or
-        // the child, since we have exclusive access to them.
-        if parent.is_dirty() {
-            unsafe {
-                kid.set_dirty(true);
-                parent.set_dirty_descendants(true);
-            }
-        }
-    }
 }