big head eyeglasses

January 19, 2006 1:44 AM

So I have this oddly shaped head and I'd like to find eyeglasses that actually fit...

My glasses never fit me. The thingee that supposed to hook behind my ears is never long enough. A few glass replacement cycles ago (before the advent of the web) I unsucessfuly looked for frames with extra long temples. I'm looking for super flexible wire frames since my glasses tend to suffer a lot of abuse.

If you're going to recommend a retail store I live in Los Angeles.

posted by rdr to clothing, beauty, & fashion (13 comments total)

contacts
posted by SwingingJohnson1968 at 2:02 AM on January 19, 2006

The portion that hooks around the ears is adjustable. Maybe you just need the bend to be made further down the frame. If you take your last pair of glasses to the place you got them, they should make the adjustments for you.
posted by defreckled at 3:15 AM on January 19, 2006

No. They really aren't long enough. I've had them adjusted.
posted by rdr at 3:49 AM on January 19, 2006

I've got a big head and have a similarly difficult time. I don't have any real advice.

You do know that frames come in differing sizes and the size is usually printed on them? Whenever I go to get a new pair I sort out a selection of the largest frames and then try them on until I find the least offensive pair. I just take it as given that 90% of the frames in the store won't fit and concentrate on the few that do.
posted by sohcahtoa at 5:08 AM on January 19, 2006

Finding right size glasses (have a look under Measurements for "temple length"). If sohcahtoa's point doesn't work out for whatever reason:

The Discovery Channel in the US carries a Canadian show called "How it's made", which I love for some reason. In the last episode they showed how they make eyeglass lenses. Basically the eye doc hands the prescription off to the manufacturers who custom machine the lens, put a bunch of coatings on, and attach the lens into the frames.

Anyway, the rimless frames come separated and need to be attached via holes milled into the lenses, whereas the regular frames are already combined and simply need a lens popped in. Because of this I think the rimless frames may be your best bet because they already have to be fiddled with quite a lot to finish the glasses, as opposed to the regular kind which could require some huge change in the initial manufacturing process since it is all automated essentially.

Regardless, the possibility of this is going to come from that manufacturing facility, not your eye doc, so those are the folks you need to be asking, or have your doc ask. Lenscrafters probably has a bunch of suppliers they can query, and one just might make what you need, or be able to custom make it for you. Try asking for an extended or extra long "skull temple", which is the style most folks are after.
posted by jwells at 5:22 AM on January 19, 2006

You could get around the fit issue by piercing them in place.

Then there's Pince-nez glasses...
posted by plinth at 6:02 AM on January 19, 2006

You might just have to go to a fancy, high-dollar boutique to get your glasses. They can pretty much custom make any piece of the frames to fit you however you want, but it'll cost. Get out the phone book and call places that look trendy and expensive.

Otherwise, there's always the Opti-Grab.
posted by spilon at 7:11 AM on January 19, 2006

I have a friend with the same problem. His head, front to back, is positively massive. I've gone to buy spectacles with him once or twice and he wears Oliver Peoples. I don't know if they still do, but at the time they were definitely making glasses with longer "arms" than anywhere else I've ever seen. They still had to make the bend closer to the edge than it was normally, but that's just standard adjustments once the arm is actually long enough.
posted by birdie birdington at 9:24 AM on January 19, 2006

This long-time wearer of spectacles remembers when a visit to the optician always included a moment where they held a ruler up to your face to measure its width, and get the length for the ear-pieces. I haven't experienced this for years -- instead, nowadays I'm just told to choose a frame, which invariably fits, kinda -- then they bend the earpieces to fit. Seems like my head's the reverse of rdr's -- there's enough material in the stock ear-piece to allow shaping to fit to my head, whereas it sounds like rdr needs them to order extra-long ear-pieces. Not sure if a fancy, high-dollar glasses boutique need be the only option, shouldn't any optician be able to order these?
posted by Rash at 9:28 AM on January 19, 2006

A lot of places online show the length of the arm, so you can pick a pair of glasses like that.

I had a good experience with Zenni Optical with my wife buying a pair of glasses. They have very mixed reviews online, but since their glasses go for $20-$30, it might be worth a try. My wife has problems finding glasses that fit well. The only kind she found that fit at all really were Silhouette's, but they cost a lot. She decided to try these rimless, hingless glasses. They have a somewhat longer than normal arm length and they're pretty hard to break. We got the glasses in a bit less than two weeks and so far they're working fine for her.
posted by skynxnex at 12:16 PM on January 19, 2006

My sweetie has a big ol' round head, and he gets glasses with ear wires. They're the kind where the end of the stem that rests on your ears is almost completely round, so they wrap around your ears and really stay on. Kind of like a vintage pair of glasses.

I think the last pair came from Lenscrafters, and they had to be special ordered.
posted by ersatzkat at 4:42 PM on January 19, 2006

A few years ago at a conventon in Atlanta, I saw a guy wearing some really unique eyeglasses. I have regretted ever since not asking him about them, because I have never been able to find anything like them. The temple pieces only went back about as far as his temples - maybe three inches from the lenses - and ended in round pads that looked to be the same material as nose pads (silicon or latex). Apparently they just clamped onto one's head, presumably not tightly enough to cause pain, but enough to hang on.

Having lived my whole life (until recently) in humid Missouri weather, I have often had a problem with my glasses slipping down when I get a little sweaty. I tend to try to flex my facial muscles (like wiggling my ears) to keep them up, which eventually gives me a headache. The clamped-on glasses like I saw might have been good to avoid that, and ought to work pretty well to alleviate your problem, too. Unfortunately, as I said I didn't ask the guy about them, and since it was a national convention, there's no good reason to believe that he obtained them anywhere near Atlanta.

Anybody ever seen or heard of this type of frame? Any suggestions on search terms to help rdr (and myself) find them?
posted by attercoppe at 5:27 PM on January 19, 2006

Oops...of course that's silicone, not silicon.
posted by attercoppe at 5:27 PM on January 19, 2006