The 2020 Narrow Helmets for Narrow Heads thread.

richard.trafford

I’m a narrow header. I have a small(ish) yet narrow and long head. Some may describe it as oval. It’s no big deal until I try and find a helmet. Most helmets will sort of fit front to back but leave a lot of movement side to side and look ridiculous

I’ve recently taken up road biking and my mountain bike helmet isn’t really suitable. It feels wrong wearing it on the road...even more wrong than my odd oval head.

I know there are many discussions about this but I feel they are a little outdated. Plus now isn’t a great time to be trying on dozens of helmets so I need to try and get it right quicker as I’ll be ordering online and returning ones that don’t fit.

So...any recommendations for helmets that are good for people with narrow/oval heads?

daniel_b

I don't have a narrow head, and as a result always get frustrated by Met helmets, which I like the look of, but are always too snug left to right, and I find similar for Giro helmets.

Hopefully some more narrowheaders will be along soon to add some more candidates to the list for you.

I would also suggest giving Lazer helmets a look, not only are they beautifully designed, imho, but I feel their retention system is superior to a lot of manufacturers out there, and will consequently fit a large number of head shapes (styles?!)

kingstonian

I wear Kask. Their Mojito fitted me perfectly, and when I went to replace it the only helmet I could find that would work for my noggin was their Protone. I tried a bunch of other helments - the one I specifically recall was the Specialized Evade, which once it was long enough to not crush my forehead there was too much room at the side

richard.trafford

daniel_b said:

I don't have a narrow head, and as a result always get frustrated by Met helmets, which I like the look of, but are always too snug left to right, and I find similar for Giro helmets.

Hopefully some more narrowheaders will be along soon to add some more candidates to the list for you.

I would also suggest giving Lazer helmets a look, not only are they beautifully designed, imho, but I feel their retention system is superior to a lot of manufacturers out there, and will consequently fit a large number of head shapes (styles?!)

Interesting about Met Helmets. I’ll look into them some more.

richard.trafford

kingstonian said:

I wear Kask. Their Mojito fitted me perfectly, and when I went to replace it the only helmet I could find that would work for my noggin was their Protone. I tried a bunch of other helments - the one I specifically recall was the Specialized Evade, which once it was long enough to not crush my forehead there was too much room at the side

Glad you say this. Kask are on my list of potential narrow helmet candidates. Originally thinking of the Mojito but I’ll look into the Protone as well.

jameses

The Limar Ultralight is quite a narrow shape, although the new version I just got is wider externally than the old one it replaced (by about 1cm)

Darius_Jedburgh

I wear a Kask Mojito which fits perfectly and there's no way you could describe my head as narrow.

magoo289

I’ve always used Giro helmets. Current using the Synthe.

richard.trafford

FrankYates said:

I wear a Kask Mojito which fits perfectly and there's no way you could describe my head as narrow.

Interesting. These were on my top 3 of potential narrow helmets. Never mind.

richard.trafford

jameses said:

The Limar Ultralight is quite a narrow shape, although the new version I just got is wider externally than the old one it replaced (by about 1cm)

The Limar Speed Air is right at the top of my list. They even look close and narrow fitting.

I’ll have a look at the ultralight also now.

jameses

If it's any help, my size M (53-57cm circumference) measures 16.5cm wide internally and 20.5cm externally at it's widest point; it flairs up and out slightly from the external rim.
Front to back (although less of an issue because of the retention strap) it's 20.5cm internally, 27.5cm externally

alistaird

If you really struggle - try Hexr....

A

bianchi_dave

I have a small narrow head and most helmets look ridiculous on my wee noggin!
I've been really happy with my Bontrager Velocis however. It's also mips which doesn't seem to balloon the helmet as much as other makes I found

richard.trafford

So...I have a few updates as I’ve now tried on 3 helmets....

Kask Mojito X : definitely more round as mentioned on here...but it’s not uncomfortable and doesn’t looks like a mushroom as it’s slim.

Limar Air Star: definitely more narrow but not sure I like the shape of the helmet. Bit big.

Specialized Align : fit perfect! Couldn’t believe it. But...feels huge and bulky compared to more expensive helmets

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I have an "oval" head and Kask helmets didn't work for me at all ~3 years ago, settled on a Giro Savant in the end, starting to look at replacement options as most helmets suggest ~3 year lifetime of use.

mugensi

I have an odd shape head too, couldn't really say what shape it is only that its narrower side to side than most. I have an Abus Gamechanger in M size which fits me perfectly and thankfully doesn't look ridiculous (mushroom like) on me.

rdt

richard.trafford said:

Kask Mojito X : definitely more round as mentioned on here...but it’s not uncomfortable and doesn’t looks like a mushroom as it’s slim.

I use an original Mojito, which as far as I can tell seems identical to the newer Mojito X. I have a fairly narrow head and when I bought it the Mojito was leagues ahead of anything else I'd tried which all looked ridiculous on me and/or felt really bulky.

Last week I bought a Protone, but for some reason on my head it looks like a mushroom compared to the Mojito. Based on the front profile of the two helmets I wouldn't have expected this - it's really hard to figure out what causes the mushroom effect, but mushroom it was, so back it went to the shop...

Shame really!

neeb

richard.trafford said:

So...I have a few updates as I’ve now tried on 3 helmets....

Kask Mojito X : definitely more round as mentioned on here...but it’s not uncomfortable and doesn’t looks like a mushroom as it’s slim.

Limar Air Star: definitely more narrow but not sure I like the shape of the helmet. Bit big.

Specialized Align : fit perfect! Couldn’t believe it. But...feels huge and bulky compared to more expensive helmets

I was just about to say.. Specialized have always had a narrower fit than other manufacturers. I'm more of a roundhead and for that reason have never been able to get a decent fot from Specialized (Kask is perfect for me), but they are probably great for you. Try some of their other, higher-end models.

pippi_langsamer-2

Specialized Evade also quite narrow

richard.trafford

So...I’ve now tried on a fair few helmets across the last couple of weeks...here’s what I’ve found:

Specialized, Limar were good for a narrow shaped head.

Giro were surprising good too considering they look very round from the outside profile. So they fit well but now look great

Kask was round but actually looked fine!

POC are pretty round.

Met were by far the narrowest! Almost too narrow.