"Dear,Having worked with both the US traditional helmet and the European style helmets I can tell you that I might look weird (according to American colleagues), but at least I'll be an alive weirdo.The European style helmet was developed in 1986 for the French fire brigade, who decided that after centuries of little or no alteration to its design, for sure one could come up with something better.Gallet, a French manufacturer cooperated with Dräger and developed the now famous F1 helmet.By now the F1 is no longer in production and we are at least 2 to 3 generations of helmets further.The strive towards tradition gave the US manufacturers a big disadvantage towards their European counterparts, who are decades ahead in manufacturing procedures and research and development on this field. However some American manufacturers are now producing helmets in to the European style. Bullard developed the Magma, which looked very nice to me on a fair. (I didn't have a chance to use it yet). Light, broad field of vision,...Rosenbauer has even an NFPA approved model! (the Hero)I currently use the Drager HPS 7000, which the manufacturer even guarantees protection against flashover!The helmets seem bulkier, but are actually lighter than their American counterparts while giving a great deal more protection.The fact of having the option to have an integrated flashood, safety goggles, visor, flashlight and even thermal imaging camera greatly improves the safety the helmet offers to the firefighters. My helmet also has a clip on system for my SCBA mask. There where one might claim that the seal would be inferior, this makes up by the fact that I no longer need to take off my helmet in order to put on or off my mask. This is a valuable time saver and avoids me exposing my head while putting on/off my mask.Even if I would be given money to wear an American helmet, I would opt for the European one if I could."