How to Clean Your Kid’s Skateboard Helmet

You want your grom to wear their skateboard helmet every time before they head out to skate with their friends, right? Then keep it nice and clean. But how do you clean a skateboard helmet correctly? How do you clean the inside of a skateboard helmet? How do you wash/clean its interior pads?

In this resource, you’ll learn the answers to all these questions. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to clean your young skateboarder’s brain bucket so they’ll want to wear it without you asking each time.

Sweating Profusely is a Fact of Life in Skateboarding

Everyone who rides a skateboard for any reasonable amount of time ends up with a sweaty head. Most skateboard helmets for kids these use sweat liners to address this problem. But while these extra pads help, you’ll still need to schedule regular cleans.

Kids are known to avoid wearing their helmet if:

• It doesn’t fit properly.
• It’s extremely heavy, which causes neck fatigue.
• It doesn’t look as cool as their friends’.
• It’s absorbed lots of sweat and now smells like a dirty rubber factory.

So be a good parent and do whatever it takes to make sure that budding skateboarder helmets up every time. I want to believe you chose a decent brain bucket. And that the lid looks nice and fits their head like a glove.

Let’s now learn how to keep sweat, dirt, grime, and odors out of that boarding helmet.

What You Need to Clean Your Kid’s Skateboard Helmet Properly

• Warm water
• Some baby shampoo/ mild soap/detergent
• Soft sponge or piece of cloth
• A plastic tub (you can also tackle the task at the sink)
• A diligent pair of hands
• Q-tip
• Toothbrush

You now have everything required, so let’s kick off the clean.

Steps to Clean Your Kid’s Skateboard Helmet

Cleaning a kid’s skateboard helmet and most helmets for that matter isn’t difficult or time-consuming. Well, it’s not the most enjoyable activity in the world, but you can complete it in minutes. Which means you can keep it looking nice and clean without giving up relaxation altogether.

Below is the step-by-step process to follow when cleaning a boarding helmet for kids or adults:

Step 1: Put enough warm water into a plastic tub or bucket. Alternatively, run some warm water into the kitchen or bathroom sink. Make sure to close the drain, of course.

Step 2: Add to the warm water a few squirts of mild detergent to create a soapy solution. Then, dip the sponge/cloth into the warm, soapy water.

Step 3: Grab the sponge/cloth and wring it to get excess water out.

Step 4: Remove the inner padding (sweat liners) and put them into the water. Most are removable. Then, use the now dump sponge or cloth to rub off the interior as well as the exterior of the helmet. If it’s just regular filth and debris, it should come out without too much effort.

Do you know it’s a bad idea to use any kind of harsh cleaner to clean a skateboard helmet? It’s because such cleaners tend to cause degradation, especially to the pads. And over time, this consistent material degradation can make the helmet less safe.

Step 5: Clean the Sweat Liners

Use your hands to rub these pads against each other. This works really well, but you need to be gentle enough, or they won’t last long. The sweat liners have rich sweat deposits, and if you don’t clean the lid soonest possible, it’ll start giving off a really bad smell.

So how do you remove odors from a skateboarding helmet? For them most part, simply washing these liners with baby shampoo gets the dirt out while also addressing odor issues. Once you air out the helmet sufficiently after the clean, it should stop being so smelly.

Once you clean the pads, turn your attention to the chin straps and side straps. These straps stay in close contact with the skin throughout the skating session. This means they soak up a substantial amount of sweat. So give the straps a nice gentle rub with a microfiber cloth or sponge to remove any lingering sweat odors.

Can I Use a Spray to Deodorize a Skateboard Helmet?

No, that’s a bad idea. Avoid using any kind of deodorizer for odor removal. This is because most deodorizing sprays contain substances such as alcohol that can insidiously compromise the integrity of synthetic components.

If the smell issue is too much and regular cleaning doesn’t seem to resolve it, you can spray the inside of the helmet with white vinegar mixed with water. Vinegar is a natural odor neutralizer and won’t ruin the helmet.

Step 6: Clean the ventilation holes and outer shell. To clean the exterior of the helmet, use a soft soapy sponge or microfiber. Agitate the shell until all dirt gets loosened up. Then, rinse off the soap and everything else on the shell using clean water.

Can you submerge a dirty skateboard helmet in water? Certainly, but according to the CDC, soaking a helmet or any of its parts isn’t recommended.

It’s now time to put the toothbrush and Q-tips to some good use. You can use the toothbrush to scrub the straps if they’re too dirty.

Another area to clean using the toothbrush is the vents. If the bristles can fit in there, push them right in and remove the dirt and debris that’s lodged there.

Alternatively, use Q-tips to clean up the hard-to-reach areas inside and around the air circulation vents. I find that using Q-tips for this task works better than using a toothbrush.

What if the helmet’s straps have stains on them? To clean stained skateboard helmet straps, rub a bit of alcohol in and see if that helps. I’ve never needed to do this for any of my helmets or my kids’ though. Remember, alcohol doesn’t treat synthetics too well. But I don’t believe using it occasionally for stain removal will cause problems.

Step 7: Allow the helmet to dry out. It’s tempting to leave the helmet out in the sun to quicken the drying process. But that’s not a good idea. Sunlight is known to cause deterioration to synthetic materials. The outer shell and pretty much everything else is made of synthetic materials.

Also, don’t place the lid anywhere near any artificial heat source. I’m talking about space heaters, near open flames, or in the dryer. But you can certainly use dry towels or cloths to mop up any excess moisture from the brain bucket.

*If your dryer enables you to switch from hot air to cold air, you can certainly use it to hasten drying. Use the cold-air setting.

Step 8: Store your kid’s skateboard helmet in a cool dry place. That cool dry place is rarely the garage or kitchen or your car’s trunk. These spaces are the ultimate heat trappers, and the excessive temperatures in there will harm this safety gear over time.

If the helmet came with a storage bag, use it to hide the lid in some cool corner such as under the bed or closet. If the closet gets too hot, you can use a humidifier to lower the temperatures to a comfortable place.

You can also hang the helmet somewhere inside the house, just not in the kitchen or garage. And if you have a proper rack, you can organize all your sporting gear (helmets, protective pads, goggles, skate shoes, and whatnot) in one place.

Watch the video below to learn how to clean your kid’s skateboard helmet. Well, the video is about cleaning a bike helmet, but the general principles are the same.