It almost makes me want to change my mantra of "wear a helmet, it could save your life" to "don't wear a helmet and save someone elses life!"
I like that. You could combine the two "...save your life OR don't wear a helmet and save someone else's life with an organ donation."
I started skiing as a very young child in the mid sixties and skied (and eventually taught) every winter weekend for the next twenty years.
The only time I ever saw a helmet on a skier was when a group of kids from the May Company department store skied. They always wore helmets. I think that that May Co. organized the trips and parents put their kids on buses headed for the slopes. I vaguely remember the group being called The Blizzards. My apologies for the digression down memory lane...
The Blizzards always wore helmets. Although NO ONE else wore helmets we didn't care much either way about the other kids wearing helmets. We certainly didn't tease them.
I didn't ski for about ten years but started again when my kids were pre-schoolers. I remembered The Blizzards and didn't even hesitate to have my kids wear helmets. I did not wear a helmet. Why should I? In twenty years of skiing, I never heard of a head injury. Ok, Bono and Kennedy but surely they must have been reckless to sustain a head injury.
I did however notice two things that were different from my earlier ski days. The first was the east coast, where I now live, has ice, whereas California, where I grew up, had snow. More importantly, there were snow boarders. On one run, I had fallen and I had a snow boarder come quite close to my head. I realized if I got hit in the head by a skier I might need some stitches but if I got hit by a snow boarder I could be in serious trouble. That was when I decided that I would buy myself a helmet as soon as we returned home. To me it wasn't a big deal since I was already wearing a helmet for other sports (bike, inline skates, motorcycles etc.)
The very next trip up the chair lift I fell as I was getting off. My son was next to me and literally followed my advice when I told him to head left when we got off the chair lift. He immediately turned left, plowed into me and I fell backwards, hitting the back of my head on the solid ice. I don't think I lost consciousness, but the world went totally black and everything that people were saying appeared as white bubble letters. Very strange. When I stood up, the ski patrol asked me how I felt. I told him that I felt like I should have been wearing a helmet.
I didn't go to the doctor since I thought I had only a mild concussion but now realize that I should have. I wasn't aware of the "lucid interval" of an epidural hematoma. I was lucky.
Now I take my kids' friends to the slopes whenever they are available. The only rule I have is that they have to wear helmets. I don't care if it is a bike helmet. Ideally the snow boarders would wear wrist guards since we've had a couple of green stick broken wrists but I leave that up to the parents. I did have one kid end up with a very mild concussion even though he was wearing a skate boarding helmet. I didn't know he had hit his head until a couple of days later when his Mom told me that she had taken him to the ER later that night.
Actually, I have one other rule for my kids and their friends. They have to take a lesson if they have never skied or boarded before. That includes when a proficient skier tries snow boarding for the first time. My own kids have to take at least one ski lesson early in the year even though they are decent skiers.
Sorry about the long post.
Sorry, couldnt' help myself. 
previously using the helmet grosses you out.
