We study the $B \to \rho$ helicity form factors (HFFs) by applying the light-cone sum rules up to twist-4 accuracy. The HFF has some advantages in comparison to the conventionally calculated transition form factors, such as the HFF parameterization can be achieved via diagonalizable unitarity relations and etc. At the large recoil point, only the $\rho$-meson longitudinal component contributes to the HFFs, and we have $\mathcal{H}_{\rho,0}(0)=0.435^{+0.055}_{-0.045}$ and $\mathcal{H}_{\rho,\{1,2\}}(0)\equiv 0$. We extrapolate the HFFs to physically allowable $q^2$-region and apply them to the $B \to \rho$ semileptonic decay. We observe that the $\rho$-meson longitudinal component dominates its differential decay width in low $q^2$-region, and its transverse component dominates the high $q^2$-region. Two ratios $R_{\rm low}$ and $R_{\rm high}$ are used to characterize those properties, and our LCSR calculation gives, $R_{\rm low}=0.967^{+0.305}_{-0.284}$ and $R_{\rm high}=0.219^{+0.058}_{-0.070}$, which agree with the BaBar measurements within errors.