This kind of contrasts with the idea of the 'exotic freshie', a helmet supposedly dragged through slit trenches, rocks, mud and grime now being presented to collectors with vibrant, bright paint in pristine condition, well-distributed minor wear, and very clean overall.
The vast majority of helmets were not camouflage painted as they didn't need to be.
Good call! The mud camo was very available, matched surrounding terrain, could be easily changed/altered according to locale, did not take much time to apply, and did not take an 'artist' equipped with paint brushes and spray cans/spray guns. (did not take hours long drying rack time for the oil based paints to cure)
Many 'exotic freshies', on the other hand, are works of art, utilized a number of elements in their creation (various colored paints, sand/woodchip, concrete texturing) took a fair amount of time to produce to get the 'right effect', used tools like paint brushes and spray equipment, and have very little if any believable combat wear.
The vast majority of helmets were not camouflage painted as they didn't need to be. Plus, moving about you needed to match the surroundings and that was better done with foliage, straw, wire, mud, sacking, etc.
