Geez, I don't think anyone on this thread has really been a so-called helmet nannie.

For those who choose not to wear helmets, great. Ride, enjoy. For those who wish to wear helmets, great. Ride, enjoy.

In my initial post, I was merely trying to point out that when someone has a "slight" fall, you don't generally end up unconscious with a concussion; helmet or no helmet. I would argue that the fall was either not slight, or the concussion was the result of a force that no functional helmet on earth would have prevented.

I was also stating that in the two occurrences where helmets came into play for me personally, I can honestly say that I would have been much worse off if I hadn't been wearing one.

Incident one: commuting home from work, head meets van as van took a blind left directly in front of me. Helmet had ugly green gash across the front top, and the foam core was split. The green gash would have been on my forehead if not for the helmet. The splitting of the helmet indicates that significant force was absorbed by the splitting of the foam core; it's how they're designed. For the record, it was a $39.95 helmet, not a $300 tour model.

Incident two: nearing the end of a race. Either the chap next to me lost control of his bike, or he thought he was Robbie McEwen and was going to "muscle" his way past me in the sprint. Problem was, the race had already been won (by someone else), we were at best going to get something like 12th place. I let my guard down, he mashed into me from the side. My bike went right out from underneath me. Broke my left femoral neck, had a big road rash on my left shoulder, elbow and hip, and the plastic that covers the foam on my helmet was ground off down deep into the foam, and the foam again was split. This was about a $170 helmet. If not for the helmet, it would have been my head that was missing a few layers of scalp and skull. My face is ugly enough without having a bunch of scar tissue to make matters (arguably) worse.

Personally, I don't care what others opinions may be, or whether this appears to be anecdotal evidence that helmets work. I believe that in these two instances it was better to have been wearing a helmet than not.

So again, if you don't want to wear a helmet.... don't. Free will is an amazing thing.
But if anyone says that they aren't worth it, I'm not convinced.