My dad paralyzed himself from the neck down with a helmet on. If only he was wearing roost deflector / chest protector / body armor, maybe he would have fractured his spine a little less bad but who knows.
Look I get it, people can crack their melon and that it would be stupid to not wear them, but you know what else is stupid? Flying at 40 mph on two wooden planks and hucking ur body into the sky and flipping upside down, or grinding a metal rail that you can fall on. Don't tell people to "wear a helmet" to protect themselves if ur gonna also participate in a risky ass activity for fun. Don't ski if you don't wanna get hurt how about that? Let people be, there will always be rare instances of people getting fucked up in action sports, you can only do so much. People have died with helments on and gotten permanent brain damage too. We should all never forget these people. Ride kevin, and ski in paradise sarah burke.
After watching my dad mope in an electric wheelchair for a decade, I can say with every inch of me, from the bottom of my stomach, the only thing you can do to truly keep yourself protected, is to ride within your limits. Other than that, it's up to chance whether or not a freak accident will fuck you up for life.
I have refrained from giving my thoughts on this topic for a while but after seeing jackasses in the comments bashing non-helmet users for no fucking reason time and time again I felt the need to just remind everyone that the only way you're gonna get hurt skiing aside from a wild coincidence is by literally pushing your limits. helmets can help but if you are progressing to wild extremes, you should know exactly what you are putting at stake, and it's not just head injuries that can fuck you up. Most pros probably realize this and understand how much danger they are in constantly, which is why they choose comfort since at the end of the day, a head injury is just one of many that can leave you permanently damaged for the rest of your life...