Head isnt working as expected

[Karthik Shanmugam]

hi guyz!!
 
I gotta  problem with the head command. I was trying to read first few lines of 
.sh_history file with the command
 
cat .sh_history | head -3
 
but the result wasnt the expected one. instead it juz prints the first line.
When I openned the .sh_history file, i found ^A^A[ header] in the first row. I 
would like to know whether the strange operation of the head is induced by this 
header.The tail comand was working fine
 
How to remove the header from a file using a shell scirpt???
 
Kindly throw light on these topics ASAP
 
By(e)
Karthik S