Best Helly Hansen base layers: the Lifa range explained

Helly Hansen is one of the best base-layer brands you can buy, and it is also one of the most confusing to shop, for a single reason: the word Lifa does two jobs at once. Lifa is the name of Helly Hansen's signature fibre, and it is also the family name stamped on half the range. So you end up staring at a Lifa Stripe, a Lifa Active, a Lifa Merino and a plain Lifa Pant, all called Lifa, and no obvious way to tell what is different between them. That is the gap this guide fills. I am going to explain what Lifa the fibre actually is, walk the whole HH base-layer range from the cheap wicking hero to the clever merino-lined tops, and give you a clear which-one-for-which-job at the end.

This guide rates each piece on the specs, the construction and how it is reviewed. For the full head-to-toe breakdown of base-layer weights and how to build a layering system, that lives in the complete base layers guide, and Helly Hansen sits in the best base layers UK roundup alongside the other brands worth your money.

One thing worth flagging up front, because it shapes a lot of what follows: most of the HH range is synthetic, wool-free, which makes Helly Hansen an unusually good brand for anyone who cannot wear merino. I am one of those people, and I will come back to it.

The HH range in one table

The whole guide in one place. Tap a name to jump to the write-up, or the buy button to check today's price.

What Lifa actually is (and why the name confuses people)

Start with the fibre, because once you understand it the whole range makes sense.

Lifa is Helly Hansen's name for polypropylene, and polypropylene has one unusual property that makes it a brilliant base-layer fibre: it barely absorbs water at all. Cotton drinks up sweat and holds it. Even polyester takes on a little. Polypropylene takes on almost none, so instead of soaking up the moisture coming off your skin, it pushes it straight through to the next layer and lets it evaporate. That is why a pure Lifa top wicks so hard and dries so fast. There is nowhere for the water to hide in the fibre itself, so it has to move.

Helly Hansen has been building base layers around Lifa since the 1970s, and it is genuinely one of the original technical base-layer fibres. The trade-off with pure polypropylene is that it does not insulate much on its own, so a thin Lifa top is a moisture-management layer, not a warmth layer. Great at keeping you dry, not there to keep you warm by itself.

Here is where the confusion starts. Helly Hansen uses "Lifa" two ways:

• Lifa the fibre, the polypropylene, which turns up in nearly every base layer they make.
• Lifa the product name, which is stamped on several different tiers: the plain Lifa line (pure polypropylene, the cheap wicking layer), the Lifa Active line (a two-layer knit of polyester and Lifa), and even the Lifa Merino line (merino wool with a Lifa lining).

So a Lifa Merino top is mostly wool, and a Lifa Active top is mostly polyester, and a Lifa Stripe is pure polypropylene, and they are all called Lifa. The name tells you the fibre is in there somewhere. It does not tell you what the garment is for. Sort the range by job instead, and it falls into place.

Which Helly Hansen base layer for which job

The short version, before the detail:

• You want the cheapest way to stop wearing cotton under your layers: the Lifa Stripe Crew. Pure polypropylene, about the price of a takeaway, wicks like mad, warms you very little on its own.
• You want one HH base layer for general hiking and hill days: the Lifa Active Crew. The two-layer everyday all-rounder, and my pick of the range for most people.
• You want a plain, no-nonsense synthetic tee and nothing more: the HH Tech Crew 2.0. Cheap, recycled polyester, Amazon's Choice for a reason.
• You want merino's warmth but wool makes you itch: the Lifa Merino Midweight. The clever one, with synthetic knitted against your skin and merino on the outside.
• You want the bottoms, or a women's cut: the Lifa Pant and the Women's Lifa Crew.

Helly Hansen's real strengths sit underneath all of this. The sizing runs big and wide, right up through the larger end of the range where a lot of technical brands stop. It is easy to buy in the UK, on Amazon and on the high street, so you are not hunting. The prices are keen, with a genuinely useful base layer starting under twenty pounds. And there is a proper men's and women's line rather than a token women's option. For availability, price and fit, it is one of the most accessible technical base-layer brands going.

1. HH Lifa Stripe Crew

The Lifa Stripe is the cheap wicking hero of the range, and the one I recommend most freely, because it does one job superbly for very little money. It is 100% Lifa polypropylene at around 125gsm, so it is light and thin, with the striped knit that gives it its name. As a pure wicking layer there is very little that touches it: polypropylene barely holds water, so it moves sweat off your skin fast and dries almost instantly.

Be clear about what it is not. At 125gsm of pure polypropylene it is not a warm top on its own, and it will not keep you cosy standing still. It is a moisture-management layer, the thing you wear against the skin under a warmer mid-layer so that when you stop climbing you are dry rather than sitting in a cold wet film. For that job, at this price, it is superb.

This is also the answer to the most common cold-weather mistake I see, which is someone pulling a fleece straight over a cotton tee. A cotton shirt soaks up your sweat, holds it against your skin and chills you the moment you stop moving. A Lifa Stripe costs about the same as a decent pizza and does the actual job. Buy one, wear it under everything, stop wearing cotton.

2. HH Lifa Active Crew (and Lifa Active Stripe)

The Lifa Active is the step up from a pure wicking vest to a proper everyday active base layer, and it is my pick of the HH range for most people. The trick is in the construction. Where the Stripe is a single layer of polypropylene, the Active is a two-layer knit: Lifa polypropylene on the inside against your skin, and polyester on the outside. The Lifa face wicks the moisture off you, and the polyester face spreads it out to dry and adds a little warmth. It is 65% polyester and 35% polypropylene, so it is the best of both fibres worked into one fabric.

What that buys you over the Stripe is versatility. The Stripe is a wicking specialist. The Active is an all-rounder: dry on the climb, a touch of warmth when you stop, comfortable across three seasons of British hill walking as the layer against your skin. If you only want to own one Helly Hansen base layer and you want it to work for general hiking rather than one narrow job, this is the one.

The Lifa Active Stripe Crew is the same idea in a lighter, cheaper, striped form. It sits between the plain Stripe and the full Active Crew, so it is a sensible pick if the Active Crew is more than you need or you want a warmer-weather version of the same two-layer design.

3. HH Tech Crew 2.0

The HH Tech Crew 2.0 is the value tee of the range, the one to buy when you want a simple synthetic long-sleeve base layer and nothing clever. It is 100% recycled polyester, quick-drying and wicking, and it is Amazon's Choice in its category, which is usually a sign of a well-priced thing that a lot of people buy and few return.

It sits a little outside the Lifa naming, and that is the point: no two-layer construction, no polypropylene, just a straightforward recycled-polyester base tee at a keen price. Polyester wicks well and dries fast, if not quite as hard as the pure Lifa polypropylene of the Stripe, and it takes on a touch more water. For a plain everyday base layer under a fleece, worn for walking, travel or general cold-weather use, it does the job for very little.

If you are choosing between this and the Lifa Stripe at a similar price, the split is simple. The Stripe wicks harder and is the better pure moisture layer under a warm mid-layer. The Tech Crew is a more conventional, slightly more substantial tee that is happy worn on its own in milder weather. Neither is a warmth piece.

4. HH Lifa Merino Midweight (the clever one)

This is the piece in the range I find most interesting, and the one I would point at first if wool and your skin have fallen out.

I will put my own cards on the table, because it is the reason I care about this one. I wear merino every day of a British winter, but I cannot wear it on my top half. A light merino top is fine, but a proper thick merino layer on my chest and back has me itching and wanting it off within the hour. I am fine with it on my legs, where it never bothers me, but on my torso a dense wool top and I do not get on. If that is you too, you are not being fussy, and the Lifa Merino Midweight is built for exactly this problem.

Here is the clever bit, confirmed against Helly Hansen's own spec. It is a two-layer construction, but not the usual way round. Most wool-blend tops weave the synthetic and the wool together, so wool still touches your skin. The Lifa Merino puts merino on the outside, for its warmth, and knits Helly Hansen's Lifa polypropylene on the inside, so it is the synthetic, not the wool, that actually sits against your skin. You get merino's warmth from the outer face and a smooth plastic face against the bit of you that itches. It is 225gsm and 57% merino to 43% polypropylene, a genuine midweight, warm enough to be a cold-weather layer rather than just a wicking one.

Two notes. The design is exactly right for an itch problem: wool warmth, synthetic against the skin, which is precisely the fix an itch-sufferer needs. And of all the merino-branded tops, it is the one I would try first on sensitive skin, exactly because the wool is kept off it. The matching Lifa Merino Midweight Pant does the same job for the legs, though if you are like me and merino never itches your legs anyway, you can happily save money there and put the clever merino-lined build where it earns its keep, on your top half.

5. The bottoms and the women's option

Two quick ones to round out the range, because base layers are not just tops.

HH Lifa Pant. The bottom-half partner to the Lifa Stripe: light Lifa polypropylene leggings that wick hard and dry fast, to layer under trousers on the move. Same logic as the top, cheap and effective at moving moisture, not there to be a warmth layer on their own. If you want a warmer, merino-backed legging for cold static days instead, that is the Lifa Merino Midweight Pant above.

HH Women's Lifa Crew. The women's cut of the cheap Lifa wicking layer, the same pure-polypropylene idea in a women's fit. Helly Hansen runs a proper women's line rather than just shrinking the men's tops, which is worth knowing if you are buying for a mixed group, and it means the whole logic of this guide applies to the women's range too. Light, fast-drying, an easy first synthetic base layer.

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