You’re smart enough to know you need to wear safety glasses for certain tasks, but the headache you get every time you put them on is enough to make you take your chances without them. We get it. Historically, safety glasses and goggles have focused primarily on protecting your eyes, leaving your overall comfort a very distant afterthought.
The problem is that uncomfortable safety glasses and goggles are usually shoved into the back of a desk drawer or under your car seat. Now, these abandoned glasses are totally useless, devoid of purpose (*sad music starts playing).
For someone to enjoy the protective benefits of safety glasses, like shatterproof lenses, impact resistance, or anti-glare properties, the glasses have to make a face-to-face appearance with our faces.
The team at Stoggles understands the need for protective eyewear that actually gets worn. We’ll talk about why people aren’t wearing safety glasses, whether or not you actually need them, and give you five tips for wearing safety eyewear without developing a massive migraine.
Why You Aren’t Wearing Safety Glasses
Safety glasses and goggles have gotten a bad rap. Our initial memories of protective eyewear started in middle school, where we donned ill-fitting goggles that smelled of formaldehyde. Unfortunately, the style didn’t evolve much once we became adults.
Unlike your middle school science lab days, there’s likely no one forcing you to wear your safety glasses when you need them. That leaves you to assess your own risks and determine whether or not you need them. This almost never plays out well. Here are the top reasons why people opt out of safety glasses.
They Look Bad
Let’s face it. We like to look good. Safety glasses have never truly been the height of fashion. Even if you’re just mowing your yard, you’d rather risk a rock to the eye socket than have one of your neighbors make sneering comments about your goggles.
They Fog
Foggy glasses aren’t safe glasses. Glasses that continually fog must be continually removed to be wiped down.
When you remove your glasses, two things happen:
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You expose your eyes to the risk the glasses were protecting you from. Removing your glasses increases the likelihood of developing an eye-related injury.
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You are taken off task. When you are taken off task, you lose time, productivity, increase your chances of error, and are subsequently prone to injury.
Even if you use anti-fog wipes, you’ll still end up with fog on the glasses eventually.
They’re Moist
Yeah, we said “moist.” The hatred around that word symbolizes our hatred of hot, damp, and sweaty protective eyewear.
Many jobs that require the use of safety glasses or goggles are outdoors or in other conditions that make any extra clothing or accessories uncomfortable. Wearing heavy goggles in a hot environment can cause you to sweat. Sweat drips down inside the goggles, causes fogging, and interferes with your line of vision.
They Give You a Headache
Pressure on the sides of your temples can become unbearable after a few hours of wearing safety glasses that are too small. If you wear your safety glasses over your regular eyeglasses, you’ll experience even more pressure.
Tension headaches are distracting, painful, and can even lead to time off from work, causing many of us to forgo the glasses in the first place.
Generic, big-box store safety eyewear is notoriously cheap and usually designed with a “one size fits all” approach. However, no two heads are exactly alike, so these glasses fit very few people. To quote non-medical doctor Dr. Suess, “There is no one alive who is youer than you.” In fact, this was proven by actual scientific doctors in research on identical twins. Yes, even identical twins don’t always look the same. So, why should we all have to wear the same safety eyewear?
The bottom line: You won’t wear safety glasses if you always end up getting a headache from them or if they’re at all uncomfortable on your face or head.
You Don’t Think You Need Them
Many times, we simply don’t recognize the risk. Whether we’re cleaning with chemicals, taking care of yard work, in the kitchen, or on the job, the familiarity of a task can give us a false sense of security. If we’ve never experienced an injury or accident before, how likely is it that we’ll have an accident in the future?
Glad you asked. You’ll probably be surprised by the occurrence of eye injuries, especially the ones outside of work. Basically, lighting can and does strike twice.
Let’s talk about how common eye injuries are.
Are Eye Injuries Really That Common?
If you’ve never had one, it’s natural to feel immune to an eye injury. You might even think eye-related injuries are rare. The statistics, however, disagree.
At Home
“I don’t work a high-risk job, so my eyes are safe.” Maybe, but not working on a construction site only goes so far. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, about half of all eye-related injuries happen at home.
Cleaning, weeding, edging, mowing, and doing home repairs are all activities that risk the health and safety of your eyes. Anytime you’re working with chemicals, cleaning fluids, or power tools, you should always be wearing protective eyewear.
At Play
Sports and hobbies account for one in four injuries that happen at home. That is significant since these are usually injuries reported outside of organized leagues and teams. It means your eyes need protection, even if you’re simply tossing a ball outside with your kids.
At Work
It goes without saying some jobs require safety glasses. But unless you are wearing your safety glasses properly and during all times when your eyes are at risk, you’re increasing the probability you’ll become one of the 2,000 eye injuries that happen on the job each day.
The bottom line: your eyes need protection whether you’re at home, play, or work. If your safety eyewear is giving you a headache, it’s time to level up.
How To Avoid a Headache From Safety Glasses
You know you need to wear your safety glasses, but the headache you get is just unbearable. Thankfully, there’s a solution.
Ensuring you’re starting off with the right safety glasses (and not just the first pair you found at the hardware store) will help you avoid a headache and prompt you to wear your glasses more frequently.
Here are five tips to avoid headaches and help you level up your safety eyewear game:
1. Choose Lightweight Frames
Safety goggles and glasses can become cumbersome and heavy, especially if they’re made from heavy material and thick rubber straps.
Polycarbonate is a naturally UV blocking material that is feather-light and supremely comfortable. Eyewear that is made from this material is typically more comfortable for the wearer.
2. Get Blue Light Blockers
Blue light comes from the sun and from devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones. Exposure to blue light can cause computer vision syndrome, a condition that results in eye strain, fatigue, blurry vision, and headaches. Blue light can even interfere with your circadian rhythm and affect your sleep patterns.
Even if you aren’t in front of a computer all day, you owe it to yourself to grab protective eyewear that has blue light blocking protection. It will help cut down on headaches and reduce your eye strain, helping you feel better while you wear your eye protection.
3. Choose Prescription Lenses If You Need Them
Don’t waste time trying to stuff a pair of heavy safety glasses over your corrective lenses. You’ll end up uncomfortable and frustrated. Instead, opt for prescription safety glasses, like the ones available from Stoggles.
We handle custom prescription lens requests in-house, saving you time, money, and of course, the headache of having to shop anywhere else.
4. Get a Proper Fit
Most safety glasses are available in a one-size-fits-no-one standard. Instead of attempting to wear safety glasses that don’t fit properly, opt for glasses that are customizable to your own face.
Stoggles are available in two different sizes to ensure our safety eyewear fits your head securely, without being too loose or too tight.
5. Take Breaks
If it’s taking you some time to adjust to your safety glasses, that’s okay. While you’re adjusting, be sure to take adequate breaks where you remove your glasses in a safe environment. Just a few minutes every couple of hours should help you adjust to wearing your safety glasses and help you feel better, avoiding headaches.
Stoggles: Our Vision for the Future
You might think you’re limited to whatever you find at the local big-box store, but the truth is, you’ve got options when it comes to protective eyewear. At Stoggles, we developed a hybrid eyewear that protects your eyes and your impeccable style.
PPE, but With Poise
Personal protective equipment doesn’t exactly fit the red carpet, but Stoggles just might. Our eyewear is designed with the wearer in mind. Available in several different lens shapes to fit your face perfectly, our eyewear is anything but basic.
You’ll also get your choice of colors, so you can coordinate your eyewear with your uniform, your job, or simply your mood. Our streamlined design means that our side and top shields offer protection where other glasses leave your eyes vulnerable, but you’ll never notice they’re there.
Our polycarbonate frames and lenses are ultra-lightweight to ensure you don’t ever get headaches from the pressure of a pair of too-heavy safety glasses.
Safety First
But also, style first too. Why should you have to choose between style and protection? With Stoggles, you don’t have to. Our eyewear exceeds industry standards for quality and safety.
- ANSI Z87.1-2020 Certified. Every pair of Stoggles is ANSI Z87.1-2020 certified. That means our eyewear has passed both a high-velocity impact test and a high mass impact test and proven to be shatter resistant and unbreakable in both scenarios.
- UV blocking. Whether you’re in the sun or on a job that exposes you to ultraviolet rays, your eyes need protection. The polycarbonate material each pair of Stoggles is crafted with is naturally UV blocking, keeping your eyes safe without adding any weight to the frames.
- Blue light blocking. We know blue light can cause eye strain, so each pair of Stoggles comes complete with blue light blocking material on the lenses. The more you wear Stoggles, the better protected your eyes will be against all sources of blue light you come in contact with during your day.
- Anti-fog. Fogging eyewear is useless eyewear. We ensure your Stoggles never need wiping down by coating them with an anti-fog chemical that changes the surface tension of water on the lenses. Your protective eyewear doesn’t fog, so you don't have to risk the safety of your eyes to remove your glasses and wipe them down.
The industry standards for safety in a sleek, aesthetically pleasing package? Done and done. Stoggles are the solution for eyewear that won’t give you a headache (or cause a fashion faux pas) while protecting your vision.
Stoggles: No Headaches, No Problems
Safety glasses that cause headaches aren’t safety glasses you are going to commit to. It’s time to break up with your old safety specs and let them down gently (or not).
Skip the headache and opt for eyewear that protects without the headache. Stoggles keep you safe, stylish, and headache-free.
Sources:
Why skip safety glasses? | 2015-06-01 | ISHN
Eye Health Tips: Preventing Eye Injuries | AAO.org
Research progress about the effect and prevention of blue light on eyes | PMC
Can Lightning Strike the Same Place Twice? | Britannica
ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2020: Current Standard for Safety Glasses | ANSI