The best ski helmets for a big head, ranked on published size range

Measure before you read any further

Head circumference is the only input to this decision and it takes fifteen seconds. Run a soft tape around your head about a centimeter above your eyebrows and around the widest part at the back, level all the way round. Write the number down in centimeters. Nearly every snow helmet on the market publishes its sizes in centimeters of head circumference, so that single figure is directly comparable across brands. The full sizing method is on its own page, with the common mistakes.

The reason this matters more at the top of the range is arithmetic. Manufacturers build size runs around the middle of the population, so a head at 56 cm has dozens of options from every brand and a head at 64 cm has a handful. Once you are over 62 cm, most published ranges have already stopped, and the ones that continue are the entire shortlist.

The published ranges, side by side

Every figure below comes from the maker’s own product page. Where a maker publishes only size names and not centimeters, we say so rather than inferring a range from a generic chart.

Two things jump out of that table. The Smith is the only one that publishes a range reaching 67 cm, which is why it wins a page about big heads despite being the heaviest here at a published 550 g. And the Giro, which is otherwise a close match on certifications and 50 g lighter, does not publish a dial adjuster for this model, which matters more at the top of a size run than anywhere else.

If you are between two sizes, buy the adjuster

A published size range like 51 to 67 cm is not four discrete points, it is four overlapping bands, and almost everyone lands near a boundary. That is what the dial at the back of a helmet is for: a continuous adjuster that takes up a centimeter or so of slack inside a size rather than forcing you to jump to the next shell.

For a head near the top of the range, the dial does something extra. The largest shell in a run is normally the one with the most spare volume, because it is built to catch everyone above the previous size. A dial closes that gap. Without one you are relying on the pads that came in the box, and pads are a coarse adjustment. The comparison of fit systems works through dials against pads in detail.

Round heads, oval heads, and why two helmets in the same size feel different

Circumference is one number describing a three-dimensional object. Two heads can both measure 62 cm and have completely different front-to-back and side-to-side proportions. That is why a helmet that fits your friend can press on your temples at the same nominal size, and it is not something any brand publishes.

The practical test, once the helmet is on and the dial is snug: shake your head firmly side to side and nod hard. The helmet should move your scalp rather than slide over it. Then check for pressure points with the helmet on for a full five minutes, not five seconds. A hot spot at five minutes is a headache at two hours. If the shell is right but there is one specific pressure point, that is a shape mismatch and no adjuster fixes it.

Do not trade safety for size

The temptation, once the shortlist is short, is to take whatever fits. Two things are worth holding on to even then.

• Published certification. Every helmet on this page publishes ASTM F2040, and three of the four also publish CE EN 1077. That combination is the baseline and there is no reason to drop below it. What each standard covers is a page of its own.
• A rotational-impact liner. Three of the four publish Mips. The fourth does not, at any size, which is the reason it is the skip on this page. The honest version of the Mips argument is next door, including where the evidence is thinner than the marketing.

The good news is that this is not a real trade-off at the top of the size range. The helmet with the widest published range here is also the one with two certifications, a dial, a rotational liner and the longest published warranty term at three years. You are not paying for size by giving up specification.

The goggle gap gets worse on a big helmet

A large shell has a large brow, and a goggle frame sized for an average face leaves a strip of forehead exposed between the two. That gap is the single most common complaint from people at either end of the size range, and it is a purchase decision rather than an adjustment: some goggle frames are simply taller.

Buy the helmet first and the goggles second, and if you can, try them together. The helmet and goggle fit page covers what to look for, and the goggle sizing guide covers frame size on its own terms. The Smith on this page publishes a cylindrical frame profile that sits flat against most helmet brows, which is one fewer variable.

Who should buy which

• Head measures 63 cm or more. Smith Cache Mips. It is the only published range here that reaches you, and it happens to be the best-specified helmet on the page.
• Head measures 60 to 65 cm and you want the lightest option. Giro Ledge Mips at a published 500 g, accepting a one-year warranty and no published dial.
• Head measures 60 to 62 cm and you are buying two or three at once. OutdoorMaster Kelvin 2 Mips, with the caveat that the sizes are published by name rather than by centimeter, so measure and check the maker chart before ordering.
• Head measures under 58 cm. You have the whole market. Start from the main helmet roundup instead, which is written for the middle of the range.

If you are still deciding whether to own a helmet at all rather than take the rental one, the rent-or-buy arithmetic is unusually one-sided for this item, and a hard-to-fit head makes it more so: rental fleets are stocked around the middle of the size chart.