diff --git a/lib/internal/util/inspect.js b/lib/internal/util/inspect.js
index 824c5961e9512c..495271fa62eecb 100644
--- a/lib/internal/util/inspect.js
+++ b/lib/internal/util/inspect.js
@@ -1995,13 +1995,6 @@ function formatWithOptionsInternal(inspectOptions, ...args) {
   return str;
 }
 
-function prepareStringForGetStringWidth(str, removeControlChars) {
-  str = str.normalize('NFC');
-  if (removeControlChars)
-    str = stripVTControlCharacters(str);
-  return str;
-}
-
 if (internalBinding('config').hasIntl) {
   const icu = internalBinding('icu');
   // icu.getStringWidth(string, ambiguousAsFullWidth, expandEmojiSequence)
@@ -2012,13 +2005,14 @@ if (internalBinding('config').hasIntl) {
   getStringWidth = function getStringWidth(str, removeControlChars = true) {
     let width = 0;
 
-    str = prepareStringForGetStringWidth(str, removeControlChars);
+    if (removeControlChars)
+      str = stripVTControlCharacters(str);
     for (let i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
       // Try to avoid calling into C++ by first handling the ASCII portion of
       // the string. If it is fully ASCII, we skip the C++ part.
       const code = str.charCodeAt(i);
       if (code >= 127) {
-        width += icu.getStringWidth(str.slice(i));
+        width += icu.getStringWidth(str.slice(i).normalize('NFC'));
         break;
       }
       width += code >= 32 ? 1 : 0;
@@ -2032,7 +2026,9 @@ if (internalBinding('config').hasIntl) {
   getStringWidth = function getStringWidth(str, removeControlChars = true) {
     let width = 0;
 
-    str = prepareStringForGetStringWidth(str, removeControlChars);
+    if (removeControlChars)
+      str = stripVTControlCharacters(str);
+    str = str.normalize('NFC');
     for (const char of str) {
       const code = char.codePointAt(0);
       if (isFullWidthCodePoint(code)) {