Thanks psyan, but my comments are based on experience. 6 years in the military, the helmet is easily classified as part of a uniform (perhaps the Gentex SPH-4 swore me off wearing a helmet ever again). 7 years flying twin-offshore, fleet averaged 6000+ hours per year, no-one wore a helmet. 1 year flying corporate VIP/RPT, fleet averaged 5000+ hours a year, no-one wore a helmet. 2 years flying twin-EMS, fleet averaged 1500 hours per year, about 3/4's wore a helmet. Lost count how many years flying S/E, suppose less than half wore helmets.
So in summary. Perhaps I've worked with several hundred civilian pilots in various operations around the world. I'd guess about 5% of them wore helmets, the others didn't. So if the 95% of these many hundreds of pilots, represententing many hundreds of thousands of flight hours experience in total, see little need to wear a helmet for their particular operation, well, that speaks volumes to me. Excluding mil-ops, I haven't worked anywhere where the wearing of a helmet was mandatory.
And I think I read somewhere also, the unfortunate BlackHawk pilot who drowned in the regretable accident off Fiji last year was trapped underwater when his helmet became entangled in some debris. But still, I agree, in a prang I'd much rather be wearing one than not.
Wear a helment if you wish, don't wear one if you don't want to. Just take it easy on us guys who speak from experience to benefit the forum.
Best wishes.