Originally Posted by ImprezaDrvr
I'll third (or forth) the notion that how it looks is far less improtant that how it works. We all have them, unless we don't give a damn about brain trauma. Ever met anyone with a traumatic brain injury? Not a fun way to live out the rest of your life, even if you're not confined to a wheelchair or something.
A helmet will do little to protect you from an accident where you might sustain an injury of this type.
To the OP. If you dont like it, dont wear it, and dont buy into the screeching that goes on about it. There are millions in Europe and Asia who bike DAILY without helmets, many of us also survived our not so safe childhoods without it. The level of paranoia in the United States today is disturbing, and the helmet crowd plays right into it.
Otherwise, if you do choose to wear one realize that since helmets are made of styrofoam it takes a good thick chunk of it to absorb ANY sort of shock, thus most helmets are going to look mushroomlike.
I own a Giro Pneumo which I think is lower profile than some. Besides it doesnt look as bad when you are out riding as it does when you stare at yourself in the mirror.