ShL-50 was made out of high quality soft black leather and built-in earphones, which were covered with rubber pads on the outside and soft leather pads on the inside. Two wires exit helmet on the back, one of them connects to the throat microphone and the other one connects to the aircraft communication systems. Early ShL-50 helmet did not have mask hooks that are found on the later models - at the time of its introduction Soviet primary oxygen mask was KM-15 that was worn with simple straps placed over the head. As later type oxygen masks started to appear many ShL-50s were equipped with the hooks - either round or like those found on ShL-61 helmets.

Along with ShL-50, two of its modifications were produced - ShZ-50 and ShLO-50. ShZ-50 is a winter version of the ShL-50 and has fur attached to the inside of the helmet. ShLO-50 is a tropical version and has the top part of the helmet made out of mesh instead of the leather. Other then that, both ShZ-50 and ShLO-50 are identical to the original production helmet.

Please note, ShL-50 series of helmets have an ID tag (located on the back on the inside back) that does not state model of the helmet, only year of its production - this is your primary clue to identifying ShL-50 type of helmets.