Tough Headwear Half Ski Mask Winter Face Cover

I really like that this one has a breathing spot that allows for hot damp breath to be vented out easily, preventing build up of moisture in the mask and on your face. It is also contoured to fit the face very nicely so it stays in place, also with the help of little ear pockets that fit over the ears to help keep the mask up in place. Well thought out!

From looking at the picture figured that it would be snug fitting but that’s not the case. It is made extremely big and does not fit around my nose, it falls back around my neck. I purchased this because I work in a cold environment and needed extra warmth around my face, at least my neck is warm.

TL;DR- it is decent enough so far. Get some anti-fog coating for your glasses if you wear them and you might be set. Having something is better than nothing unless that fogging would potentially cause you harm in some way.See below for the wall o’ text.
Update: ***If worn “improperly” your ears will hurt

I’ll elaborate on the issues after I say some other quick things…
So the good: it arrived quick, it fits, it is comfortable, it looks like the product on the image as of writing this, it feels like it will work when I go cold camping soon. Now I haven’t tested this in cold windy conditions. (Which is important because I once found out on a camping trip that a jacket of mine did almost nothing because I felt the wind pierce through it. Actually worse, after it went through the jacket it felt like a conduit spreading the cold air in parts of my body that wouldn’t be hit by the wind.) So once put through the test I’ll update the review for that.
The bad: it fogs up my glasses when breathing, and during my “out of the box test” I was processing some firewood outside in my front yard, I might have scared my neighbors.

Now onto the glasses fogging issue: (this is also an answer I posted)
Given my face shape and my glasses with blue light resistant coating (not really a factor in this issue), I’ll say it depends on how you breathe. If I breathe slowly and normally through my nose, yes there is significant noticeable fogging. If I breathe slowly and normally only through my mouth, yes, there is slightly more significant noticeable fogging. If I pucker my lips outward to where it makes contact with the inside of the balaclava and breathe through the mouth mesh exclusively, no there isn’t much, if any, fogging (puckering isn’t technically needed but the point is, air has to escape through mesh or it goes up to glasses). Heavier breathing will make the fog denser. Now during a cold hike where you want to conserve your water and temperature loss, breathing through your nose is more effective and without some anti-fog coating on glasses, this balaclava may not be your best choice. A person that posted an earlier answer to the fogging question said there are gaps not pinched in the nose area that helps funnel all the moist air not being pushed through the mouth mesh back upward into your glasses causing a fog (pretty much along that line). But fret not, breathing in the same way causes the air nearby to pull back inward, removing most if not all the fog from your glasses… until you decide to breathe out again.

I planned to try and modify it when I first had this issue but trying a mock mod by pinching the gaps closed with my fingers makes it much more difficult to breathe through nose as the breathing mesh is limited to the mouth area.
However, along that note, I actually kept it on while I write this review in my house and noticed 2 things: glasses fogged less as time went on and it got more difficult to breathe through my nose. It took a while but the surface temperature must be just enough not to cause significant condensation (similar to how that works for your car windows.) or air found a different way around that isn’t up on my glasses. But because of how limited the air flow is to the nose, it is difficult to constantly get the air needed to sustain myself and I must resort to mouth breathing for a while before resuming breathing through my nose. It is like slow suffocation and this is just me sitting. Doing physical activity will likely be almost exclusively mouth breathing. (Which would probably solve the fogging issue)

Oh and the other thing about scaring my neighbors was probably true. I was also testing some camping gear during the balaclava test so when I’m splitting/reducing wood out in the cold with my 8” knife, a mini hatchet, and my multitool… then trying to sharpen each of those afterwards… you can imagine the faces of people looking at me in my bright blue polo and brown khakis with a balaclava and fogged glasses covering most of my face.

***I took this out to PAX south as an last second ninja cosplay, and after about 3-4 hours my ears started to hurt real bad. The reason is I have long hair. Though I tied it up pretty well, gravity decided to slowly push it back downwards which pushed the balaclava down as well. As a result, the ear sleeves put downward pressure on my ears for hours at a time and caused the pain. So unless you can keep your hair above the balaclava while moving around, the ear sleeves might cause a bit of an issue. Not the product’s fault (as I can tie my hair tighter probably), but something you should consider unless you plan to keep your hair inside the balaclava. It did help keep me warm in the cold winds outside the building.

3 stars for all the good stuff that a (half) balaclava is supposed to be. -1 star for the fogging/breathing issue, -1 star for the price tag with said issues. Had it been maybe $7-9, it would be 4 stars, but if I’m paying almost $15 for a piece of cloth around my face and neck, it has to be better than what I got here.

I always wondered why they didn’t design balaclavas without the head part — that I don’t like wearing because it electrifies and messes up my hair for the rest of the day — and with a strap to hook it into the ears, and voila, this is exactly that product. This half balaclava is perfect for sunny cold temperatures when it doesn’t get so biting cold that you would need to cover even your head to keep every bit of heat from escaping. I usually get much colder in the ears and face anyway. It’s also useful for ear and face protection while cycling in fall with a highly ventilated summer helmet that doesn’t cover the ears.

It is not that useful or comfortable as a gaiter if you are using a skiing or snowboarding helmet that already has ear as well as head protection. A soft high quality wool gaiter is much more comfortable in that scenario. This half balaclava is made of synthetic material and feels fine (but understandably not as nice as high quality merino that would also be more expensive).

One issue with this half balaclava is that if you need to pull down (and keep pulled down) the nose covering portion to breathe more freely for some times, the ear sleeves don’t hold firmly and might slip over and down the ears. It is however reasonably stable if instead of pulling down the nose covering portion, you fold it downward. I was even able to fold it twice over downward to uncover both my nose and lips. Your mileage may vary depending how snugly this one size-fits-all item fits your face.

Overall, I found it pretty decently functional as advertised and reasonably priced.

Comfy and great

Product quality is not Good…

Mr. MVP is running in 15 to 20 degree weather and as the winter progresses he will be running in 0 degree weather. He really needed something to protect his face from the cold air. I looked everywhere for a solution and most products were just too complicated. He already has a skull cap he loves, so this face mask from Tough Headwear looked ideal.

After his run this morning Mr. MVP said that this worked perfectly. He does wear glasses and he knows that he is going to have issues no matter what he does, so he just eventually took his glasses off. He could not get his glasses to stop fogging up. His face was warm, his head was comfortable in his skull cap and his run was pleasant.

Mr. MVP is a big guy and this mask fit him very nicely. It did not fall down and did not require any tugging or adjusting while he was running. I tried the mask on when it first arrived and I’m about half his size (128 pounds vs 240 pounds) and it fit me as well, but I’m not certain it would stay up if I was running. Walking yes, but running, I’m not sure.

I will update this review if this mask holds up to weekly washing and line drying.