Wearing sunglasses on the underground

[Leafyhouse]

Why do people do it? I just don't get it. AIBU?

I’m amazed at the amount of people who comment that I’m wearing 2 pairs of glasses, one covering my eyes and the other pushed back on my head. It’s as if it hadn’t occurred to them that people who need vision glasses might need vision sunglasses too.

Folks can think what they want but I'm not fumbling about with expensive prescription sunglasses into case to get out normal glasses as getting into and out of tube stations, shops etc just to please people who may think I'm odd/affected
Risk of dropping them high and I can see perfectly well indoors with them. If I want to read, I put them on my head

It pisses me off taking them off and finding somewhere to put them. I can’t put them on top of my head like normal folk as they always always get tangled in my hair for some bloody reason!

I don’t wear them on the tube though - coz I never take the tube!

It would also be severe headache/migrane for me.

I did it a few weeks ago, I live in the USA where, rightly, no one cares so hadn't occurred to me until now that I might need to justify/explain doing it. While I was there visiting I just carried on as I would at home because I'd totally forgotten that it's something that bothers some in the UK - I'd still have done it if I had remembered because it suits me to wear my sunglasses when and where I want.

I don’t take my sunglasses off on public transport. I can’t be bothered and I like looking at people

Bloody hell elemental, do what you want to do. Nobody's business but yours.

Prescription glasses

This is a subject close to my heart. My father had his eyesight damaged at birth, brain damage really, but only in that area. So he's always had very bad eyesight, really borderline blind. He's not only very shortsighted and colour blind (red/green), but also has photophobia. This is a rare condition and it causes him actual, physical pain if exposed to bright light. He's always worn prescription very-dark glasses for this reason, they don't change darkness in light/darker conditions, like my prescription specs, they are permanently dark because he can't go outside otherwise. He's also had abuse off strangers about this all his life. People think it's fine to shout, Oi! Why you wearing sunglasses when it's cloudy (or on the tube, or whatever)? Like he's an attention seeking twat or poser. And it's upset him greatly, it's a medical need that he didn't ask for. Please, people, consider that others' eyesight may be compromised in all sorts of ways, there's lots of variables. I've helped blind people on the tube before and other passengers looked scared, like talking to the disabled guy was dangerous. No, he just needed help and I was the only one on the platform who did so, because I understand quite painfully what it's like to be isolated by that particular disability.

PS, when interacting with a blind person, DO raise your voice volume a little bit, they need to hear you more than a sighted person does.

Because when I take them off I lose them. Seriously, 3 pairs of sunglasses all lost on the Tube because I took them off, hooked them somewhere and they got lost in the bodies crammed together. Much safer to wear them!

Prescription sunglasses and Aspergers. Oh and laziness!

If I've been crying I'll pop them on.

Bright light hurts me.

I wonder if I'm turning into a vampire.

Hayfever

To protect eyes with contact lenses from dust.

Prescription sunglasses. Blind as a bat without them.

I have prescription sunglasses and it's a faff to swap my normal glasses for sunglasses then back again for a short tube journey (I always put them in a case, after breaking an expensive pair by putting them on my head).

To stay in my own head space and keep the sensory input of being surrounded by fifty plus people to a minimum.

I wear them because theyre prescription sunglasses

Because I have photophobia.

Why on earth do you care?

I have just had eye surgery. Lights are very bright and dust is problematic. Nowhere near the underground but I’ve had just worn them round my local shop. It wouldn’t occur to me that anyone would even notice.

Might be prescription sunglasses I always leave mine on

Sensitive eyes.

In the fall, when I leave work, the sun is still in the sky. By the time I have walked home and stopped in the grocery store to do a quick shop, the sun has gone down. I don't bother taking my sunglasses off then as it's too much bother but I must look an idiot on that two block walk to my condo wearing them when there is no sun.

My DH has to wear sunglasses all the time, his only let 2% light in, and a cap because he is very light sensitive. Train and bus lights are really bright for him.