When I started I bought a cheep skateboard helmet
The reason behind this is that there are not many serious head injurys while learning but it is very easy to get a nasty bang if things go wrong
I wore mine until I felt that the chance of headbutting the ground was very low
So I would recommend the same as you will probably find that 3 to 6 months down the road you will not use it much unless you are trying something new for the first time
Think I got mine from e-bay or skate hut
Clive got a really cool mirrored one quite cheep somewhere
Think I paid £10-15 for it
If your gonna ask about pads next
they used to do Pit Dirt ones on here that were fab for bocking but think they can't get them any more
The new ones look good but I've not tried them yet
Jason
Jason