Why are all glasses soo big now?

[goneaway2]

Got new glasses today and I hate them, far too big for my face and they were about the smallest the shop had. They are these ones https://www.visionexpress.com/glasses/Ralph-by-Ralph-Lauren-RA-7020-599/805289395454

Do smaller ones actually exist anymore? Why are they all soo big?

Unless you're lucky enough to have an exactly glasses-shaped head, the dispenser will adjust the curve of the side-pieces to conform to your head, tilt and curve the ear-pieces to fit flush with your head and snugly, but not too snugly, around your ears, and adjust the nose pads, if there are any, to make sure the glasses sit at the right distance from your eyes and with the optical centres of the lenses in front of your pupils. They'll check to make sure the glasses are distributing weight equally and won't press or rub on the delicate skin on your ears and nose, they'll try to prevent the side-pieces pressing on the sides of your head, which can cause headaches, and try to make sure the glasses aren't going to slide down your nose if it gets sweaty, or fall off your face when you look down or vigorously move your head.

If you don't get your glasses fitted properly, you're less likely to get the best vision, more likely to experience discomfort, and more likely to damage your glasses.

But all of these are a lot more important when you're a full-time glasses-wearer with heavy lenses which are sensitive to exactly where they are in relation to your eye. They're not so important if you have light thin lenses in a mild prescription that you don't need to wear all the time (and which might not cost much to replace).

@TheCoffeeNebula well, well, well. I don't have much in life but I must have an exactly glasses-shaped head. 😂😂😂😂

Think of it as a blessing from the universe 😄

I thought you were talking about the width of the frames rather than the sizing of the glass part.

Mine have been too wide so I feel as though I'm a child wearing my dad's glasses. No amount of tweaking behind the ear stops them falling off, it just makes them dig into my ear, then they fall off if dare to look at the floor. Never used to be like this until ten years ago :/

Is it only me who thought this was about wine glasses? 😂 when you get a glass of wine, usually in a hotel, and the glass would hold about a pint but you get 250ml in it! 😂
Sorry, back to the specs!🤓

Think you have that back to front??

I have an off the scale prescription and personally Im loving that big frames are back in, because I dont have to pay top top wack for the extra extra thinning

Wearing varifocals trying to find a frame where my prescription fitted was a complete nightmare where they were all so tiny

Boots teen section usually works for me. Often the styles/brands here are the same as in the adult section but the frames are smaller.
I have a high prescription and a petite face so need glasses to be small to keep the lenses light and ensure they fit properly.
Definitely worth a look if you haven’t already.

I do shop at specsavers ( get that out of the way now)

What I love about them , apart from the fact that the team in my local store are absolutely fantastic and I always get 100% service, is they have an online try the frames on at home

I am seriously as blind as a bat without glasses and trying on blank frames is pointless.

So I go online and try them all, pick out the ones I think are good for me then go in store with my list and try them on - yes I need the big hand mirror

I think they did the try online during lockdown, Ive used it twice, and seriously Ive been so pleased with my glasses, I actually like them. In the past I have had to go by what the fitter thought suited me, nothing awful, just not me. Now I can have my say

That makes no sense to me.

I mean, the part about needing a big lens to usefully fit in all the parts of a varifocal makes perfect sense.

But whether you're high plus or high minus, a smaller lens means a thinner, lighter lens. The bigger the lens area, the thicker the thick bits of the lens have to be, so the more you need to spend on high index materials and fancy aspheric lenses to make them wearable.

I found one of those oversize frames on Specsavers, and plugged the dimensions and my own prescription into this calculator: http://opticampus.opti.vision/tools/thickness.php. Apparently, with bog-standard plastic lens material, my glasses would come out 2cm thick at the edges, in that frame 🥸🤣 The calculator seems a bit rough and ready, but does illustrate beautifully what a big difference lens size makes, even when you compare it to the effect of going up a price category (or three) on the high index materials.

All I can think is you mean the thickness of the frame material, where a thicker frame can hide some edge thickness on a high minus lens?

If I put these John Lennon style glasses into the same calculator — same prescription, same bog-standard lens material, just a much smaller lens size — I get an edge thickness of 6.7mm, just a third of the 20mm(!) edge thickness I got with the oversized frames.

With the massive frames, the absolute thinnest I can achieve by switching to a higher-index material (1.9 index glass, which is heavy, uncomfortable, and expensive) still only gets me down to an edge thickness of 10mm. I doubt they'd even stay on my nose at that weight, though.

The calculator doesn't take aspheric lens designs into account, AFAIK, but I'm just trying to illustrate why the PP mentioned needing smaller lenses due to a high prescription. Your off-the-scale issue must be something other than high plus or high minus lenses, I guess — and yeah, bigger is usually better with varifocals.

That calculator is good.

why are Specsavers never able to answer my question of “how thick will my lenses be in this frame compared to that one”. Or how thick will they be with medium thinning compared to max thinning?

if this calculator exists you’d think specsavers could answer such questions 🤷‍♀️

Some people who use glasses buy frames which don't suit them at all. Talking Thunderbirds' Brains style.

I wear glasses and go for metal ones with rimless at the bottom. Can't be doing with framed at bottom as I find it off-putting

I would guess maybe it's something to do with the complexity introduced by things like the shape of the lenses in the frame, different labs doing things differently somehow(?), different lenses maybe having a different amount of central thickness, differences with aspheric lenses, the effect of bevelling, with all that stuff bringing in a lot of uncertainty about what you'll actually end up with for any given frame/lens combination. Or maybe it's that the vast majority of customers aren't affected by this issue or, if they are, they don't feel the need for precision when deciding, so opticians don't want to confuse matters and spend extra time training staff on it, for what might be a misleading prediction that could produce a dissatisfied customer.

I wonder if generally we're better off with an experienced human who's familiar with the frames and lenses they sell, who will be able to intuit whether your lenses will look thicker in this frame or that one. I've had one tell me not to bother going from a 1.67 to a 1.78 in a particular frame, as it would've been extra money and worse optics for the sake of a fraction of a mm thinner.

My DH recently had to replace all 3 pairs of his glasses - he was in despair as they no longer have the styles he's had for years. Really struggled to find something suitable (I chose in the end and he's not the biggest fan but accepted I have to look at them, whereas he just has to look through them!)
He has to have quite specific lenses in them and Boots were amazing about getting it sorted out! They worked really hard to find a solution.

What an interesting thread! I like the bigger lens because I have varifocals and it gives you a fighting chance for them to work without getting travel sick. Too much real world contrasting with lens world makes you feel wobbly.

My problem is my broad nose. I need a wide bridge and I don’t like pads as they tend to leave a mark.

I also really appreciate the way they fit the arms. One ear is slightly higher than the other and the wrong eyebrow is Also slightly higher, so I get a very noticeable diagonal line if they don’t adjust them for me.

However, they do get mucky from my eyebrows. There were barely any that fit.

I bought glasses from Specsavers a year ago after spending an hour in there not finding a pair I like. The ones I have were the closest style that I like but not perfect. I have a big round face so I like squarer styles. If I got big lenses I would look terrible. But anyway, the current ones are now not fitting properly and smear easily (I have varifocals) and no matter what the ahop assistant does they fall off my nose so I'm getting a new pair soon. Hopefully the choices will improve.

There are companies that sell frames specifically with a wide bridge fit, though then you'd have the awkwardness of buying frames probably online, then asking your opticians to fit lenses — they can get a bit funny and tell you that if they break them, that's your problem 😅 I don't know your ethnicity, but there are also a few American companies trying to cater for African American face shapes that aren't well served by existing manufacturers, offering frames for broader nose bridges.

I once had a great pair of replica Lennons from the 'Lennon' branded range (sold by Glasses Direct, don't know if they still do them) - they really were tiny. Alas, they are too small to accommodate varifocals so I can't have them reglazed to my current prescription. I don't actually like John Lennon, I think he was an arse, but I love his glasses.

It's all very well opticians recommending teeny tiny lenses to the thickness-afflicted, but you're basically giving me a teeny tiny spyhole into the world, set into a vast expanse of fuzz.

Agree, I find them too wide and small adult frames are limited in number.

No, bog standard freckled welsh woman here.
I’ll start with Spevsavers online selection first then consider elsewhere.

I doubt they'd refuse to sell you a pair either way 😅

So true 😄

A bigger lens means you can see more around you without needing to turn your head. I used to like Aviators which I understand were designed to provide the maximum vision through the lens. Still try to get them for sunglasses.

If you need varifocals a small lens means you have only a tiny "window" to look through at the closer distances. That might be why older people tend to prefer bigger specs.

Yeah, I asked DH why everyone was now wearing comedy specs! They are ridiculous😂