as im sure many of you know helmets were, prior to the high middle ages, comparatively rare in terms of the number of people that would wear them in an army
this is particularly true for the 'viking age' and darkages
yet for modern reenactment, we dont want to get our heads dented in, so many of us wear helmets anyway (as well as gauntlets but thats another story)

but in order for a club to be able to have a decent

one solution ive heard is to either wear a cervelliere or some kind of basic metal skullcap under a period hat (in the way t was apparently done during the english civil war.

how often is this actually done, and how well does it work n terms of keeping your head safe

Given that what most re-enactors want is protection from crushing, blunt force injuries rather than from cuts from sharp weapons, I'd say that a 'secret' isn't going to be of much use as it's in direct contact with the skull with little or no padding under it.

However, I'd question your assumption that helmets were rare in early medieval armies. The majority of soldiers in the BT are wearing one, the Anglian cavalry on the Aberlemno stone are wearing them, heroic poems such as Beowulf mention them frequently, surviving laws list a helmet as being required of anyone being sent to the old English fyrd etc.

I don't think that the absence of helmets from archaeology should be taken as proof that helmets were rare items.

you don't need armor while reenacting.

archers,cannoneers and handgunners don't need armor if they don't fight in a melee.

i have seen german pike blocks with no armor, just 3 dozen blokes with 6 meter pikes. (nobody did get thru)

so as always the question is what time frame, location and what will you be reenacting???

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or in the pouring rain

viking era axa 9th-mid 11th century, (although for more ambiguously dated items i might accept dates up to the beginning of the 12th C)
MY specific era id be reenacting is a rus man, one of the 6000 part of prince vladimirs men who were given to the byzantine emporer as reinforcements who subsequently became a man of the varangain guard.

but contrary to popular image of the guard as this corps of tank like men whoes armour would be superseded by only the cataphracts (well not quite but you get the picture).
literary evidence suggests the guard were likely to be fairly lightly armoured in most cases ,especially in terms of body armour (though the STANDARD base armour for byzantine infantry including the average pikeman was a kavadion aka gambeson so its not unreasonable that the average rus varangian would have had one soon enough after joining) same maybe goes for helmets

http://www.nvg.org.au/documents/vv/vv_issue_47.pdf this is an article done on the armour of the varangian guard

regarding the bayeux tapestry how relaible is it as a source of what the composition of armies was. . maybe the makers depicted it like that to show them looking better than they maybe were? *shrugs* well i mean, the numbers anyway

but the anglo saxon laws of the equiptment of the fyrd is interesting
its THAT which i think is useful information for many since we all knowthe image ofthe rich man aka, the sutton hoo, valsegard, gjermundbu, gnezdovo and 'black grave' burials the question is the common man.. what date are these anglo saxon laws based around? and is there evidence it continues until the era of hastings?
i dunno what the situation in terms of helmets for the rus is, as far as i know but
in the east helmets are far more common for the 10th century my understanding is that the northwest has 1 full helmet aka gjermundbu.. the east has a decent handful of helmet finds dated to the 10th century.. some more ornate than others

and i will definately be melee, either hand weapon and shield or danish axe or maybe a 7-8 foot 2 handed spear
so armour is reccomended.

A thin helmet with little padding would do fine on a Dark age battlefield. After all, the odds are that it will be glancing spear thrusts rather than absorbing sword blows.
The surving one piece helmets from central europe (olmutz, St Wenechlas) are less than 2mm thick, as far as I remember.

For reenactment purposes, if the system does not use head hits. all you need to prevent bleeding headshots is a sturdy cap of some sort. After all, it only needs to dampen accidental hits.
If your rules call for a helmet, wear one, and make a kit that matches.

Helmets where not required for the Norwegian Leidang (Fyrd equalient). After 1275 it was required of the more wealthy farmers. However, it is the first upgrade from the basic kit. (Spear, shield, hand weapon)

I reenact with the Sudrland chapter of Vikings Vinland, and we encourage hidden helmets. There are no headshots, so leather helmets and very light steel helmets are OK. I am currently about halfway finished with my secret helmet. I have just finished the hot forging from approximately 12 gauge, and will hide it under a slightly oversized, thick naalbound cap with another more fitted naalbound cap underneath. I may sew all three components together to make a steel-lined naalbound cap.