How Can I Decorate My Motorcycle Helmet?

Shopping for a motorcycle is a highly individualized experience. You always want to try and find a ride that suits your level of skill and your personality. While you're shopping, though, you'll also want to make a point of purchasing your essential safety gear. If you're worried about customizing your ride, though, you may find yourself wondering: how can you best decorate a motorcycle helmet? We researched this topic and found a wealth of information on how to make your helmet best express your personality!

A motorcycle helmet with decorative drawing on the surface, How Can I Decorate My Motorcycle Helmet?

The world of helmet customization is broader than you think. You have dozens of options to take advantage of when decorating a motorcycle helmet, including:

  • Decals
  • Paint
  • Braids and pigtails
  • Mohawks
  • Cat ears
  • Small accessories

There are some restrictions you'll need to consider, of course, including what decorations are road legal and which, if any, will weaken your helmet. Even so, it's easy to get lost in your decorative options - and you have plenty of good reasons to explore all of the avenues available to you!

How Can I Decorate My Motorcycle Helmet?

When you go to decorate your motorcycle helmet, you'll need to determine what medium you want to work in and how you want your final product to look. This way, you can gather all of the materials you need beforehand, and you won't have to break off your project while it's in progress to find supplies.

 

That said, your options for personalizing your helmet include:

Shopping For Decals

If you don't trust yourself to paint a helmet, there's no better way to find your style than with the help of decals. These weatherproof additions come in all manner of shapes, styles, and colors. You can find several available through individual helmet stores as well as through big names like Amazon. All you'll need to do is shop the style you're most interested in and determine which decals look best together.

To apply your decals, you'll need first to clean your helmet to ensure that no dirt or grime prevents your decal from sticking. Then, after peeling off the adhesive on one side of your decal, you can position it appropriately.

Painting Your Helmet

Painting your helmet allows you to put your artistic skills to the test. Whether you want to emulate Bob Ross or experiment with your aesthetic, painting gives you complete creative control over your project - for better or worse.

That said, you'll need to take steps to ensure that your design stays where it should. To successfully paint your motorcycle helmet, you'll need to:

  1. Clean the helmet of any dust or debris.
  2. Sand your helmet down, removing the existing paint from it and better ensuring a clean canvas.
  3. Apply your paint, first with a base coat.
  4. Stencil on your preferred designs.
  5. Add additional layers of paint until you find yourself satisfied.
  6. Apply a clear coat or another sealant once your painting's complete.

Adding Braids Or Pigtails To Your Helmet

Sometimes, you can marry style with practicality when customizing your helmet. Such is often the case with helmet braids and pigtails. You can most often find a stand-out pair of pigtails or braids through online retailers.

Click here to find on Amazon.

These bright accessories make it easier for other motorcyclists and drivers to spot you while you're on the road. They're easy to apply, often using the existing architecture of your helmet to slip into place. Most are attached with suction cups, limiting their strain on your helmet while still providing you with a unique look.

Crafting A Motorcycle Helmet Mohawk

For motorcyclists looking to use their helmets to reflect a hairstyle but who may not be interested in braids, there's always a helmet mohawk. These mohawks come in various forms and can be applied to your helmet with suction cups or with adhesives, depending on the model you purchase. They also come in multiple sizes and colors, and some light up while others use neon paint to catch the light. You can work with a set of small, metal spikes or do as the Romans did and embrace a modern transverse crest. Whatever your preference, you're bound to stand out while you're on the road.

Crafting Cat Ears For Your Helmet

Similar to a set of pigtails or braids, you can easily apply a pair of detachable cat ears to your motorcycle helmet. These ears allow you to express your love for a pet or your e-style, all without compromising the structural integrity of your protective gear.

Find a pair of stick-and-peel motorcycle cat ears through Amazon.

Finding Accessories That Speak To You

If you want to experiment with different mediums while customizing your motorcycle helmet, don't let convention stop you. There are dozens of accessories that you can add to make it more unique. Some are as simple as a traditional visor, while others are as daring as devil horns or full-on royal crowns.

Your options for a custom design include but are not limited to:

  • Bow ties
  • Traditional ties
  • Animal horns
  • Crowns, diadems, or laurels of varying complexity
  • Sunglasses
  • Hats

You can also work with a professional - or an experienced crafter - to integrate LEDs into your motorcycle helmet. You'll ideally want to keep these lights outside of your helmet so as not to compromise your visibility. That said, you can embrace Daft Punk's signature look and light up the night with streaks of consistent or changing color along the side of your helmet.

What Kind Of Paint Do You Use On A Motorcycle Helmet?

While painting a helmet will allow you to better express yourself, you'll want to make sure that you've invested in water-based acrylics if you want the design to stay on. You'll also need a sealant to waterproof your paint, or else you'll find your carefully-crafted design rapidly disappearing when it's exposed to the elements.

Do Stickers Weaken A Helmet?

There's a distinct difference worth noting between the decals you can put on your helmet and more traditional stickers. Several independent businesses deliberately sell you motorcycle decals that don't have as many toxins in their adhesives as regular stickers. Without these toxins present, you can more confidently trust in the strength of your helmet.

However, if you apply the standard art store stickers to your helmet, you may want to be especially careful while on the road. Again, the adhesive in these stickers can slowly erode your helmet's protective shell. Not only will this compromise its appearance, but it will make it less effective while it's protecting you on the road.

Does this mean you should forgo stickers entirely? Not necessarily. Instead, do your research ahead of time and try to find stickers or decals that fit your aesthetic preferences without exposing your helmet's share to corrosive chemicals.

Can You Vinyl Wrap A Helmet?

If stickers are out, you can always consider vinyl wrapping a motorcycle helmet. Unfortunately, the shape of a motorcycle helmet makes it especially challenging to manage a cohesive and unwrinkled wrap. Even so, there are some independent artists and businesses that will be willing to try. Be sure to research your preferred artist ahead of time, and be prepared to go through one or two test runs. Again, motorcycle helmets don't have the most convenient shape for wrapping, and it may take a bit of experimenting for you to find the fit that suits you best.

When it comes to customizing your motorcycle helmet, your options are endless. With that in mind, think about your style and how you want to present yourself on the road. Once you have an idea in play, you can start shopping around for ways to express yourself through your roadway gear better.

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