So you bought some eyeglasses online and you like them butttttt they don't fit your face. They slip off, feel wiggly or look kind of crooked. You can adjust those eyeglass frames in about 5 minutes.
I bought these eyeglasses online years ago. Buying eyeglasses online is great, and convenient and usually cheap but what about fitting them to your face? That's not so great.
These particular glasses were the right size for my face, but they slid down my nose. I pushed them up. They slid down. I pushed them up. They slid down.
My optometrist also sells and fits eyeglasses and I'm sure they'd fit my Internet glasses for me (and then talk about what an ass I am for having them fix glasses that I didn't buy there), but ... I don't feel right about it. For obvious reasons. Also then I'd feel like I owe them a favour and frankly the last person you want to be in debt to is an optometrist. What if they need an eye one day? What then?
Then it hit me. All I needed was a bit of hot air.
Eyeglasses? Meet hairdryer.
The only tool you need to make your glasses fit perfectly. Without a single optician in sight.
How to Bend Eyeglasses So They Fit.
This is the before of my eyeglasses. You can see why they'd slip down someone's nose. The arms don't curl around the ears. They're very straight.
Enter the hairdryer.
- Set the hairdryer to hot and point it at the portion of the arm you want to bend. Heat the arm until it's hot and bends easily with gentle pressure.
- You can use the hairdryer on the nose of the glasses as well. Heating it there you can slightly bend the frames from that point which will make the frames fit tighter against your head.
You did it. You fixed your own glasses. For free!
You have eyeglasses that stay on your face and you never have to push them up again, leaving your finger for more important tasks like picking up potato chips and pointing and laughing at people with poorly fitting eyeglasses.
To adjust your glasses if they don't sit straight on your head because of your embarrassingly unlevel ears you don't need the hairdryer at all. Just gently bend them up or down at the hinges.
You are the best. You are confident. YOU have glasses that fit. And you did it all without it costing you an arm and an eyeball.
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Also effective is this alternative: put small-black o-rings between the face frame and earpiece hinges. It's very good for those sunglasses that are a tad over sized for your actual head but you still want to wear them without them falling off at every opportunity. I found a pair of Raybans and had the cracked lenses replaced. but the frames were just a bit too big. Enter the o-ring. You just roll it up the earpiece and nestle it into the hinge and hey presto! glasses fit. Yay! Since I'm having cataract surgery next week I'm looking forward to ditching the glasses altogether. i think this cost all of $0.80 cents US.
Mine aren't the kind that would benefit from this so I use NerdWax on the nose pieces. It does work--no slipping! Also, when I need a repair of my not-from-Costco glasses, I take them to Costco and they fix them for free. I loooove Costco!
Yes but when they hang on my ears I get a headache, so another way to adjust them is to heat the arms and push the ends in slightly so they "hug" your head instead of resting on your ears ;)
Signed,
Wearing glasses since age 12
My uncle was an Optician. When he adjusted glasses frames, he stuck the esr pieces in warm sand. There is an actual product that opticians can buy. So your hair dryer solution is correct. I wonder if heating sand in the microwave would work too.
Hi Karen, love your blog. I didn't purchase my plastic eye glass frames on line but at my optometrist office. I have been back in about 7 times to have the frames adjusted. The last time I was in they showed me a product that is packaged like lip gloss and is called "Nerd Wax". I have to say that it has really done the trick. My glasses don't slide down my nose nearly as often. It is applied liberally inside where the nose pads would be, only my plastic glasses have that part built right in. They said to reapply it whenever necessary. I have been really pleased with it.
I miss your manicured nails. Especially the matte black. Are yours naked because they are always in the dirt or grass stained this time of year like mine?
I’m curious since I live through you vicariously, what is your criteria for polish?
Ok I have a question, do you know how to measure lens to get a replacement frame? Hubby broke his favourite game frames, the lens are are still in perfect condition. He went to several shops and they either wanted 4 times the amount of the original price of said glasses or had no luck what so ever. So he is willing to look at internet frames now.
Hoping you have some ideas.
Hi Lynne, I don't know how to measure lenses but if you look on the arm of his old eyeglasses they should have all the measurements there. This post I wrote a while ago has a diagram explaining the measurements. ~ karen!
I bet you loved McGiver!
Karen is better than McGyver. I can actually do most of the things Karen teaches. I can’t do any of the things McGyver does.
oK SO I just sent back my prescription sunglasses because of this problem and only received half my money since they cannot re-sell them. I wish i knew this.
I am going through this right now with my regular (near sighted) glasses. So annoying i cant stand it... I will try this over the weekend. A friend mentioned put them under hot water but I like your idea.
Karen, you are brilliant! I don't even wear glasses (thanks to my laser eye surgery last year :) ), but will definitely try this on a beautiful pair of sunglasses that keep slipping!
What's happening? I received this as a new post but all the comments are dated either 2014 or 2016!
I generally applaud your efforts at recycling but I'm hoping this is not an old post.
Yes, it's a post from 2014. I often put up one old post a week (Tuesday or Thursday) after rewriting a bit and redoing photos. ~ karen!
Penny, if you look underneath the title of the article, you would have noticed the line "THIS POST WAS LAST UPDATED: March 27th, 2019"
I have one ear lower than the other.......any suggestions?
Tilt your head?
Surgery?
If adjusting the eyeglass is too challenging, simple accessories like ear hook/temple tip that slips on the eyeglass temple will hold the eyeglass well without slipping. This one works for me (http://betasimplicity.com/wedgeclassic.html). There are also others although I find them less comfortable.
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For your bald readers, or your rebellious readers that have nothing to do with a hair dryer, boil water (nuke or stove) and stick the ear pieces in for a few seconds til pliable. Bend to your heart's delight.
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If your glass have an anti-reflective coating you can craze (crack) it easily if you get the hairdryer close to your lens. Most people don't know that the AR coating is somewhat heat sensitive, as it expands at a different rate than your lens does.
Eh that should say "glasses"
I've done that with my sunglasses. I'm less impressed by the glasses bending than I am the shot of you holding the glasses, the hairdryer AND taking the photo. You have mad skills, or, 3 arms.
Thanks Melissa! But I'm not *that* great. I actually have a miniature flying monkey that works not dissimilar to a helicopter in that I can have him fly in one spot and hold things for me. I've named him Cheeto. ~ karen!
Are you stalking me? How did you know that I have brand new glasses? I wish I had your loosey goosey problem. Mine's the opposite. They're pressing so damn hard into my head behind my ears that it's giving me blurred vision. Which sort of defeats the purpose of new glasses.