Recording heads having an ESD shunt trace and methods of fabricating the same are disclosed. A recording head of the invention includes a first shield, a second shield, an MR read element between the first shield and the second shield, and an ESD shunt trace. The ESD shunt trace is formed from MR layers and is connected to the MR read element and one or both of the first shield and the second shield. One or more of the MR layers forming the ESD shunt trace are processed to reduce the MR properties of the ESD shunt trace. Examples of processing the ESD shunt trace are ion milling, ion implantation, oxidizing, reactive ion etching, sputter etching, wet chemical etching, etc.