Abstract: A helmet for reducing impact-related head trauma and pathology, including acute concussive and chronic sub-concussive injury, the helmet having a plurality of tensile and compressive layers configured to disperse, spread and absorb the kinetic energy of an impact force through a network of interlayer and intralayer structural motifs. The plurality of layers include a “shell layer”, preferably as a unibody construct, having a resilient framework of anastomosing reticulations defined by slots or cutouts so as to be capable of flexing cooperatively during an impact and recovering. The shell layer serves as a support for an exterior layer, generally an ordered layer of “scales” attached to the outside surface, each scale being mounted so as to resiliently yield, resist stretch, and cooperatively flex with shell members.