Me and my slightly older Brother had to wear helmets even before the Law required them.
In 1959, my older brother hit a car head on with no helmet and his head and neck were cut to pieces by the glass car windscreen. I had also remembered how he looked back then so us two just wore the funny stripey hats.
When about 14 and riding bikes in the quarry, we had no helmets and that was much more dangerous than roads on an old BSA 600 sidevalve M20