diff --git a/Mail/Views/Thread/MessageBodyView.swift b/Mail/Views/Thread/MessageBodyView.swift
index b649f4734..337a04350 100644
--- a/Mail/Views/Thread/MessageBodyView.swift
+++ b/Mail/Views/Thread/MessageBodyView.swift
@@ -75,9 +75,9 @@ struct MessageBodyView: View {
                     }
                 }
             }
-            .opacity(model.contentLoading ? 0 : 1)
+            .opacity(model.initialContentLoading ? 0 : 1)
 
-            if isMessagePreprocessed && !model.contentLoading {
+            if model.initialContentLoading {
                 ShimmerView()
             }
         }
diff --git a/Mail/Views/Thread/WebViewModel.swift b/Mail/Views/Thread/WebViewModel.swift
index 4efe0d6fb..e357dc8b4 100644
--- a/Mail/Views/Thread/WebViewModel.swift
+++ b/Mail/Views/Thread/WebViewModel.swift
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
  */
 
 import CocoaLumberjackSwift
+import Combine
 import MailCore
 import Sentry
 import SwiftSoup
@@ -29,6 +30,10 @@ final class WebViewModel: NSObject, ObservableObject {
     @Published var showBlockQuote = false
     @Published var contentLoading = true
 
+    /// Only true the first time the content loads, then false. Eg. when loading subsequent images.
+    @Published var initialContentLoading = true
+    private var contentLoadingSubscriber: AnyCancellable?
+
     let webView: WKWebView
     let contentBlocker: ContentBlocker
 
@@ -49,6 +54,14 @@ final class WebViewModel: NSObject, ObservableObject {
 
         super.init()
 
+        // only register the first flip of contentLoading to false
+        contentLoadingSubscriber = $contentLoading
+            .filter { $0 == false }
+            .prefix(1)
+            .sink { _ in
+                self.initialContentLoading = false
+            }
+
         setUpWebViewConfiguration()
         loadScripts(configuration: webView.configuration)
     }