diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/shell.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/shell.rb
index 9bd8b35399..8066702bf5 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/shell.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/shell.rb
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ module Utils
 
     # return the shell profile file based on user's preferred shell
     def profile
-      return ENV.fetch("ZDOTDIR", "~") + "/.zshrc" if preferred.eql? "zsh"
+      return "#{ENV["ZDOTDIR"]}/.zshrc" if preferred == "zsh" && ENV["ZDOTDIR"].present?
+      
       SHELL_PROFILE_MAP.fetch(preferred, "~/.bash_profile")
     end