Help me find new glasses!

March 25, 2021 9:58 AM

What shape of glasses works well with a mask?

Like most people with glasses, I've found the experience of wearing a mask with glasses to be, to put it charitably, frustrating. Some days I can line my glasses up with the mask so there's no fog, some days the same mask with the same glasses is a fogged up nightmare, and it's a constant battle to get the fog-to-vision ratio correct.

I've seen endless discussions online about which masks work best with glasses. My question is the reverse. I'm eligible for new frames this year, and I was wondering if any particular frame style works better with masks than another.

My current glasses are essentially an older version of these, the lenses are approximately 1.5 in (3.81 cm) at their tallest point. My suspicion is that shorter frame heights like this might be better than taller, wayfarer-style ones? Or round ones?

I have masks in several shapes, with nose bridges and without, so I'm not really looking for another mask, I've got that dialed in pretty well. I'm really most concerned with getting a set of frames that minimizes the occurrence of fogging as much as possible. I know it'll never go away 100%, but I have the nagging feeling that I might be able to do better, and since I can get new frames this year, if there's a frame shape that works best with masks, I'd love to know what it is.

I'm not keen on aviator-style particularly, but otherwise I'm open to pretty much any style, as long as it plays well with masks.

posted by pdb to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total)

Adjustable nose pads (like you have) are good, I think a deeper lens height would help so that you can position the glasses completely over the top edge of the mask. Maybe longer temples because the glasses are further down on your nose. The bottom of my glasses rest on top of the mask, pressing it down more tightly to my face.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:12 AM on March 25, 2021 [3 favorites]

Not quite what you've asked, but bear with me. I'd highly recommend purchasing a FogBlocker wipe instead of getting glasses that might work better with masks.

This wipe has been a total game changer for me, as a lifelong glasses wearer. It's been the only thing that TRULY prevents fog.
posted by VirginiaPlain at 10:32 AM on March 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

Seconding nose pads as a desirable feature. I've been wearing this design the last couple of years, and being able to pinch the top edge of my mask (fitted or non-fitted) against my nose to create a semi-seal pretty much eliminated fogging for me.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:34 AM on March 25, 2021

I prefer the giantest lenses I can find (I wear bifocals, and I want an ample regular-vision area above them) and am doing okay with them over masks as I can bump them down my nose a smidge and put them well over the rim of my mask. Then (this is easiest with a metal nosepiece) I try to make a "chimney" in the mask right over the bridge of my nose so it vents up my forehead between my lenses.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:11 AM on March 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

I had a complex process for keeping my glasses fog-free when wearing a mask -- rinsing the lenses with a bit of dishwashing liquid and water, and carefully positioning a folded tissue under the top of the mask.

That all changed when I found a much better solution: putting a strip of surgical tape across the top of the mask.

I learned this from a friend of my wife's who is a medical tech. The tape comes in 1-inch-wide rolls, and it will stick well to the mask and your skin, but will pull off easily when you take off the mask. It's breathable... but not breathable enough to let steam from your breath pass thru.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 6:52 PM on March 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Having the nosepads go over the mask help make a tighter seal. Good seal = less fogging. It’s annoying though because you need a little more length in the frame arms to make them sit comfortably, especially if the arms have a pronounced curve around the ear. Might want to get two pairs if it’s within your means, one pair for outside and one that fits you better when you’re maskless for inside. So the outside mask would have longer arms, nosepads... maybe big lenses as well (because they inevitably sit further down your nose so you need a lot of lens height), these taller lenses are everywhere, so that’s easy. I myself like polycarbonate lenses because they’re lighter. They do have some UV protection so that’s a bonus. But maybe high-index lenses (if needed) would work better if they add a tiny bit of weight to the lenses, to help them sit over the mask.

I read something today about pantyhose or tights over a mask helping create a better seal and adding some filtration power (up to 90% for coronavirus virus particles, vs like 70% for a tightly fitting surgical mask). Haven’t tried it yet myself, plan to. Tights are better than pantyhose apparently.
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:08 PM on March 25, 2021

I wear big 45mm(?) round lens glasses, so I can pop them over the mask nose wire bit and still see without tilting my head. Good wire shape is essential so there is no gap between nose/cheek and mask.
posted by ananci at 9:13 PM on March 25, 2021

no matter what kind of glasses you wear, you have to tape it to your face if you don't want to breathe out around the mask instead of through it. that goes for everyone, glasses-wearers are just the only ones with a self-interested reason to care and a built-in indicator that it's happening. that, or get a model that fastens so tightly to your face it might as well be taped on. but that is less comfortable, usually.

any kind of sports tape or tape for bandages will work. you just have to be careful peeling it off.

you do not want to be "venting" air up through anywhere.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:04 AM on March 26, 2021

Thirding tape. You can get medical paper tape that will be easier on your skin at a drugstore.
posted by en forme de poire at 7:26 AM on March 26, 2021