The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission specifies appropriate helmet types for player safety in 25 sports. The approved dimensions of a baseball batter's helmet are based on the principle that proper fit places protective features over the proper areas of your head. The CPSC requires batter's helmets for baseball and softball to meet a safety and manufacturing standard developed by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.
Dimension Standards
To provide for an accurate comparison of dimensions between batter's helmets made by different manufacturers -- and to account for slight differences in shape due to styling-- the helmet "size" is standardized by National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment on traditional "Stetson" hat sizes. Human heads are typically oval to varying degrees. Stetson adjusts this to a uniform value, which is the head circumference measured just over the brow and divided by pi, or 3.14. This provides the diameter of a perfect circle with that circumference. The Stetson dimension or size of most people's heads is between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2, from children to adults.
Dimensions For Children
Batting helmets are measured by inside dimensions because outside dimensions may vary with thickness of padding and helmet material. Some suppliers of batting helmets recommend a one-size-fits-all approach to finding a helmet with the right dimensions for children under age 14, unless their head size is 7 or larger. In that case, many makers recommend exact sizes.
General Dimensions
Many sporting goods suppliers market a one-size-fits-all dimension for everything between sizes 6 1/4 and 7 1/2. Others generalize dimensions within narrower ranges of head circumference and sizes. For instance, head circumferences from 20 to 20 3/4 inches are called extra small. Sizes graduate at about 1/2-inch to 3/8-inch increments through small, medium, large and extra large --the latter at a head dimension of 23 1/2 inches in circumference.
Headforms
The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.specifies few exact batting helmet dimension standards, with the exception of the placement of the ear hole in the protective ear flap --1.26 inches and 1.48 inches below the helmet's largest circumference for small and large helmets, respectively. However, 15 precise dimension standards are set for the headform, or manikin-style head models, sizes 6 5/8, 7 1/4 and 7 5/8, on which experts perform all required batting helmet safety tests. If a helmet passes the tests on headforms with those dimensions, it is expected to protect you, as well.
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