Considering how many models flood the market nowadays, picking the best snow helmet for women can be tough. That’s why we decided to set our focus on finding the 10 best out there make your search a little less hectic. We saw in our best snow helmets guide a mixture of styles, features, price-points and gender-specific models; however, how about a guide strictly for the ladies? Before we give you our top picks we do want to highlight a few simple factors to keep in mind before you press the check out button, so let’s get into the specifics!
Selecting the Best Women’s Snow Helmet
Before we let the style, color choices and designs deter us in a helmet’s direction, let’s talk a few important factors we feel are necessary when choosing the best women’s snowboard and ski helmet for you. Firstly, we want to highlight budget. Price-points are common for all types of snow gear, especially when it comes to protecting our noggins. We’ve seen quite a few amazing helmets $100 or less out there considered the “best” for those who don’t want to spend their entire cash flow on one thing (especially if you have other snow gear to buy). However, others can start to climb to more than $100 and even near the $200 mark — for a reason of course, which leads us to our next factor — which features justify price-tags for you?
When we speak about “helmet features”, we want you to keep in mind the technical terminology and fancy titles certain snow brands put onto their “helmet specs”. For one, “helmet construction” is important to look into. A lot of brands label their construction differently than others to market to us. We recommend grabbing a helmet that has either “In-Mold Construction” or something similar — this is a type of helmet build that’s almost standard nowadays, coming with a specialized injected interior as well as harder shell exterior. We also recommend any other extra security and protection technology helmets may have built-in — such as MIPS.
Other features that are quite common in all helmets but to keep in mind are the venting systems (some are controlled by you whether or not you want to open or close them), extra comfortable interiors (like fleece or velvet), adjustable straps and goggle locks (or even complete fit systems that use a dial to fit the entire helmet on your head as opposed to a strap), brims to some shade and cohesiveness with your goggles, and more. Do any of these stand out to you?
As we’ve taken the style as well as extra features when it comes to protection and comfort into play, let’s finally review if you already have your other snow gear yet. This is beneficial to think about not only when factoring your budget (or future budget) but if you’ll be able to find a style that matches the aesthetics you’re looking to bring to the mountain (we all know that’s important!) We’re talking matching up our women’s snow goggles, snowboards, boots, bindings and more (read those guides if you need to afterwards).
The Best Snow Helmets for Women
Anon Aera
Next up we include one of our favorite budget friendly women’s snow helmet, available in multiple matte-like colors if you like the style. The modern design and nifty technological features makes the Aera one of the best women’s snow helmets on the market today. We firstly love this in terms of comfort — this helmet contains long-haired fleece lining that provides both warmth and a soft feel while you wear it. The lining is so effective that you do not need to wear a beanie underneath the helmet although we usually do if its super cold out.
The Aera helmet also has a goggle ventilation channel as well as a removable goggle clip on the back of the helmet to help with convenience. The vents can be controlled by you — closed or opened to allow air to flow through in warmer conditions, or closed to retain heat in colder conditions. The foam and ear pads are also removable and the chinstrap is adjustable. The Anon Aera is the perfect helmet for the rider wanting a sleek look with unique features while saving some money at the same time, not to mention getting a piece of Burton snow gear in your repertoire.
Giro Era MIPS
This snow helmet falls on the middle to upper end of the price spectrum, but the reliable and customizable features make it make it yet another one of the best women’s snowboard and ski helmets out there today. The Giro Era MIPS is a stylish snow helmet, available in numerous different bright colors and known for its safety features. At first glance we love this hefty-sized vents to give us some airflow and moisture resistance. It was designed for all-mountain riders with a special impact protection system (MIPS — although available without it, we highly recommend buying a pair with MIPS for a few extra dollars), which provides extra protection by allowing some rotational force to occur in the helmet to keep our heads safer during certain falls (less movement for our heads).
This helmet can be adjusted internally to fit different head shapes and goggle sizes, and the ear pads are removable as well. Those vents we love on the top of the helmet can also be adjusted through opening or closing them to your liking. This one contains a goggle clip on the back, and a recessed area on the side for the straps to fit into it. The lining makes it comfortable and warm through any snow conditions. This Giro Era MIPS is perfect for the adventurous, bold, rider looking for comfort as well as extra head protection. This is definitely another one of the best snowboard ski helmets for women.
Traverse Retrospec
The Retrospec is a unique and extremely affordable helmet, making it one of the best snow helmets for women on the market if you weren’t concerned with fancy or crazy techy features. It is a convertible ski/snowboard and bike/skate helmet, so in case some of you ladies were planning on doing all of the above, here’s a multi-purpose solution. It has two sets of inner pads, providing comfort and protection on any type of terrain. This helmet contains removable fleece snow-caps and earmuffs that can be swapped for foam padding, depending on the type of terrain.
The Retrospec has fourteen vents around the helmet to regulate body temperature, as well as a visor to securely hold goggles. Whether you are in warm or cold conditions, this helmet will keep you comfortable and dry. The helmet can be adjusted by a simple twist of a dial, a convenient feature we love since it controls your fit in a 360 degree manner as opposed to old-school straps some other helmets use. In addition and as a plus, the earmuffs have a zippered pocket in the back for headphones. If you are looking for a versatile helmet with customizable features then the Traverse Retrospec is the helmet for you — it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, mainly due to not being created by one of those “big brands” if you’re able to get by without having that name tag.
Smith Arrival
The Smith Arrival is the best snow helmet for women looking for a durable and reliable helmet that has some super soft interior for those with concern for comfort. This helmet has some great safety, with the previously highlighted In-Mold Construction that provides dependable impact protection. Both the ear pads and the fleece lining are machine washable, allowing the helmet to stay fresh and clean and increase the life of this thing by many years (we all know those who toss helmets once the inside gets too gruesome.
The helmet is easily adjustable with a twist of a wheel, allowing for modifications to occur on the fly around your entire head (like the previous Traverse). There are fourteen vents around the helmet to ensure great ventilation, but they can be closed to retain heat if needed and your goggles are sure to stay in place with a convenient goggle lock. This helmet is compatible with many audio systems for those who like to listen to music while riding. The Smith Arrival is a smart purchase for anybody looking for a helmet that provides great protection, comfort, and convenience — we’re huge fans of Smith.
Anon Greta
If you are looking for a basic snowboard helmet that gets to the point with no frills, then the Anon Greta is the perfect choice. Its extreme affordability and focus on reliability and comfort make it onto our list one of the best snow helmets for women. This is an injection-molded helmet, meaning it offers durability but isn’t as advanced as others with In-Mold. The Greta has vents all around the helmet, built for the airflow to pass through the front and out the back, keeping goggles mostly clear.
The ear pads and inner lining are fleece, providing extreme comfort and warmth and can be removed if you prefer to wear a beanie or goggles underneath your helmet, or if you simply get too warm. Also, this helmet can double as a bike helmet during off-season. The Anon Greta helmet fills all your protection and comfort needs for an affordable price. It isn’t anything spectacular or ground-breaking but that may be just the helmet for you — nothing crazy for a great price.
Smith Allure
Smith’s second appearance gives us a sleek-looking helmet, falling on the middle to upper end of the price range, with some unique and trendy features. Firstly, and don’t hold us to this claim, but Smith claims his helmet is the “world’s lightest certified snow helmet”. It has features we’ve seen quite a few times already in this guide — a fleeced inner lining for a very comfortable and warm fit through most conditions. as well as an in-mold construction that contributes to the lightweight feel and the EPS liner provides extreme protection without the extra clunk.
The fit of the helmet is self-adjusting however it only has nine adjustable vents around the helmet, allowing the rider to personally regulate the temperature. The Smith Allure is the optimal choice for the rider with a broader budget, looking for an innovative and fun helmet. The specs and reliability of this helmet make it one of the best women’s snow helmets on the market today.
Giro Stellar MIPS
As we near the end of our list we include a high-priced, higher-end women’s helmet called the Stellar MIPS by Giro. The customization as well as the premium features makes this one of the best snowboard and ski helmets for ladies. This helmet can be tailored to each individual rider through the turn of a dial at the back of the helmet. It is composed of a two-piece outer shell that can be tightened or loosed up to six centimeters. The vents on the helmet are self-adjusting, providing optimal thermostat control.
For those riders who enjoy using Go Pros or other small filming devices while they ride, the Giro Stellar MIPS has a camera mount included on top of the helmet — coming as one of the most standout features of this model. Most helmets only protect against direct impact, but the Multi-Directional Impact Protection System (MIPS again!) ensures protection from all angles as we had explained prior — some rotational force in the helmet so you don’t absorb it all for certain falls. The Giro Stellar MIPS is the perfect choice for the rider with a large budget, looking for a helmet focused on safety and customization, especially if you have a GoPro handy or plan on buying one to document your shredding.
Traverse Dirus
The Traverse Dirus is yet an affordable, fun helmet by a lesser known brand (at least among snow gear enthusiasts — this is another one of the highest rated helmets on Amazon). The protection as well as the versatile features this helmet offer makes it one of the best women’s snow helmets. The ABS shell exterior as well as the EPS Foam Interior provides decent comfort and safety all at the same time. Like their other previously listed model, the plastic framework can expand and tighten at the twist of a dial for a customizable fit. There are ten vents tactically placed around the helmet to ensure optimal airflow and temperature regulation.
The padded earmuffs can be removed to use as a bike helmet, and have a zipper pocket for earphones. The inner lining of the helmet is made of netted fleece, designed to expel moisture and the back of the helmet contains a goggle clip to ensure they stay in place. The Traverse Dirus provides numerous features for a very affordable price. As you can see we’re seeing some of the features stated over and over again, especially with helmets in the same price-point. However, we’d say if comfort and security were already covered for you and you still needed some help picking, we’d go without whatever styles looks the best.
Roxy Love Is All
To conclude our list we include another affordable helmet by Roxy focused on comfort and construction, making it the last but not least of the best women’s snowboard and ski helmets in the market today. This is another In-Mold helmet (seeing the trend here?) with a double micro shell framework, making it lightweight without compromising safety. It contains EPS shock absorber foam to even further protect your head against direct impact hits and the helmet is made of mesh and Sherpa fleece lining to ensure you stay warm and comfortable all day long.
The ear pads are removable in case you get warm, or prefer to wear a beanie under your helmet. The chin pad buckles and the Sherpa lining prevents chaffing. The Love Is All also of course has vents on the front and top to increase airflow through the helmet, reducing congestion. If you are looking for a budget friendly helmet with all of the essential features to keep you warm, safe, and comfortable in all conditions then the Roxy Love Is All helmet is an ideal choice for ladies, especially with Roxy’s elegant aesthetics.
Roxy Power Powder
Now that we’ve decided on what’s important to us, let’s sift through some of the best models we’ve been able to accumulate for you. We begin our guide with a trendy, affordable and in our opinion one of the best women’s snow helmets in the market today. The Power Powder is known for not only its beautiful styles, but comfort, durability as well as affordable price-point on top of it all. In terms of build, this helmet is lined with a mesh material as well as fleece, making it comfortable and cozy for a full day of riding. It contains vents on the front of the helmet in order to increase airflow through the helmet. These vents help to prevent the helmet from accumulating sweat and humidity on that precious head of yours while you shred.
The Power Powder helmet also has a thick chinstrap to keep the helmet in place, as well as removable ear pads (to take them out to wash or even replace with some after-market audio speakers if you’re interested in that). Lastly, the construction of this helmet contains a lightweight In-Mold Construction (a type of manufacturing technique that uses a foam interior liner that is infused in while the hard exterior of the outer helmet is still in that manufacturing mold, giving us a light weight, well vented and comfortable design) as well as EPS shock absorption foam to aid in soaking up some hit if you happen to have a little scuffle. There is also a goggle loop at the back at the helmet as well, to keep the goggles in place. The Roxy Power Powder snow helmet is in our opinion the ideal choice for the lady rider looking for an affordable, comfortable helmet that provides great safety as well. You can also read our Roxy Power Powder review for some more in-depth information before your purchase.
