Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. Different robust header compression (RoHC) schemes may be used when a change in a header extension flag between packets of a communication session is determined. For example, a transmitting device may determine a value of a header extension flag in a packet has changed with respect to header extension flags in preceding packets. Upon detecting the change in the header extension flag, the device may compress the header using different RoHC schemes. For instance, the device may compress the header by reverting to an initialization and refresh (IR) state. Additionally or alternatively, the device may compress the header using a compression profile that refrains from compressing a certain portion of the header. In some cases, the RoHC scheme used for compressing the header may be based on how frequently the value of the extension flag changes between packets.