Glasses irritation - any good ideas?

[Kim]

My nose is the wrong shape, and I sweat too much.  But I still want to ride a bike a lot.

In the absence of an easy fix for either of those, does anyone have any clever ideas for irritation caused by prolonged rubbing of the nose thingy on your glasses against raw skin in the presence of sweat and road grime?

So far I've been washing the worst of the grime off the side of my nose with water when stopped, and occasionally pushing my glasses forward to the librarian position to give the sore bit a rest.  And I've been feeding the affected patch moisturiser when I'm at home and not wearing glasses.  But other than that, I'm out of ideas.

I need glasses to see properly, and even if I didn't, I'd need them to keep the sun/rain/gravel/bees out of my eyes.

[delthebike]

Now you've let the secret out my story of using red hot tea spoons on the side of the nose won't wash any more! 

Try a lighter pair or using padding on the nose pieces. perhaps Sudocrem might help. Something that might help them stay in place is Croakies, it might stop them sliding.

[jogler]

In the past I have used an Elasoplast type plaster or those things that stretch your nostrils open to promote easy breathing.
Not the most elegant solution & probably a non starter if your are remotely vain due to the nerdy-geek-look effect but I ceased to be vain many years ago*

* waits for a barrage of concurring comments from those forummites who know me well

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Maybe instead of softening your skin with moisturiser, you could try toughening it up with surgical spirit.

[Kim]

Maybe instead of softening your skin with moisturiser, you could try toughening it up with surgical spirit.

The idea was to encourage it to heal without flaking.  This whole thing started off as an insect bite last autumn.  (The other side of my nose is fine.)

FWIW, I don't have problems with my glasses sliding.  They stay put just fine, literally rubbing salt into the wound.

[alexb]

Are you talking about standard prescription glasses or are you using dedicated sports glasses with prescription lenses?

It might help if you rode with a different set of glasses to your everyday glasses so that any rubbing or contact is in a different place.
Apart from that, try different nose pieces and also clean the nosepieces thoroughly between rides.

[Kim]

Are you talking about standard prescription glasses or are you using dedicated sports glasses with prescription lenses?

Standard prescription glasses.  I only need them for distance, so I very rarely wear them except when cycling/walking.

Apart from that, try different nose pieces and also clean the nosepieces thoroughly between rides.

I clean them almost obsessively, as I'm not shortsighted enough not to notice gunk on the lenses.  I give them a proper wash (including nosepieces) after every ride.

I could try changing the shape of the nosepieces, but prior experience suggests that there's only really one place on my nose where they'll happily sit, and it took me lots of messing about with pliers to find.  Any further forward and they're on the annoying bony protrusion, or falling off   


I think I'll try a bit of micropore tape on the side of my nose while riding for a bit.  If it'll stay put...

[Biggsy]

Vaseline Intensive Rescue (AKA Vaseline Intensive Care) works better than normal moisturisers, and seems to help skin to heal itself (even though it's not advertised as such).  It's meant for body rather than face, but I use it on my face anyway.  At some stages it's even worked better on my dad's ulcer-prone legs than prescribed "healing" creams and lotions.

My first thought was a little more extreme: drill a hole in your forhead to take a screw to support the glasses frame so you could do away with the nose piece.  Should be no problem as long as you sterilise the drill bit, right?

[Kim]

That would be the barakta approach.  The amount of hassle she has getting glasses frames not to foul the screws, the hearing aids that attach to them, or the sensitive bits of her ears makes this problem seem trivial.

[Jurek]

My first thought was a little more extreme: drill a hole in your forhead to take a screw to support the glasses frame so you could do away with the nose piece.  Should be no problem as long as you sterilise the drill bit, right?

I don't know what you were thinking Biggsy, but it's not as straightforward as that.

You'd need to tap the hole. M3 or M4 should be more than adequate.

Plus use an O-ring to keep in anything which has to be kept in.

[Kim]

Plus an O-ring to keep in anything which has to be kept in.

Barakta will be along to rant about the O-rings shortly, no doubt.

Before they developed the current design, it meant retrieving and re-aligning pingfuckits on the side of your head every time you took a jumper off carelessly or got hugged by a clueless granny...

[andrewc]

Molish a pair of monocles from the lenses.... nose problem solved.....

or a larger, softer nosepad to spread the pressure ? 4-x-NOSE-PADS-SOFT-HYPOALLERGENIC

or for more protection..

[Manotea]

Another possible  cheap lo-tech solution because they take the pressure off your nose. Elsewise I'd look at a pair of light prescription sports glasses from Optilab. The sprint wrap round styles fit very close to the face and rely on the arms gripping the side of the head  as much as the nose for support (I've got a pair of 'New World' frames).

[Kim]

Softer pads sounds worth a try, thanks...

[jogler]

This

http://www.play.com/Sports-Outdoors/Sports/4-/20019570/Beaver-Discovery-Prescription-Diving-Snorkelling-Mask/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:20019571%7Cprd:20019571

should be kind to your nose bridge.
TVOE
 

[Mrs Pingu]

http://thegloss.com/fashion/gallery-summers-strangest-sunglasses/gallery-page/1/?

[L CC]

Contact lenses & a tandem pilot.
One for the vision, one for the bugs/grit/etc.

Works for me...

In all seriousness, I only started wearing the lenses because I broke my nose and wearing specs was very painful, being as they sit on the broken bit. I hate wearing glasses of any description. I don't think, for me, the protection offered is worth the discomfort of specs.

[jogler]

http://thegloss.com/fashion/gallery-summers-strangest-sunglasses/gallery-page/1/?

Is that not one of Madonna's bras?

[andrewc]

This

http://www.play.com/Sports-Outdoors/Sports/4-/20019570/Beaver-Discovery-Prescription-Diving-Snorkelling-Mask/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:20019571%7Cprd:20019571

should be kind to your nose bridge.
TVOE
 

You're suggesting that Kim should go diving for beaver rather than ride her bike....

[jogler]

You are making it dangerous for me to attend Kim's Rollright Stones ride.
 



 

[perpetual dan]

I've swapped frame types from the ones with little pads on a bit of wire to ones with the plastic over the nose moulded into a supportive shape. I think it spreads the load more evenly - in that I used to get slightly red patches sometimes with the pads but don't now. So, this would be harder rather than softer material on the bridge - almost a Brooks approach to the problem

[Kim]

This

http://www.play.com/Sports-Outdoors/Sports/4-/20019570/Beaver-Discovery-Prescription-Diving-Snorkelling-Mask/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:20019571%7Cprd:20019571

should be kind to your nose bridge.

Do I get a masturbating Welshman with that?

Contact lenses & a tandem pilot.

I'm failing miserably at recruiting people to ride tandem with me.  I mean, I haven't even stoked for Wowbagger.  That's practically compulsory for female YACFers...

I've swapped frame types from the ones with little pads on a bit of wire to ones with the plastic over the nose moulded into a supportive shape. I think it spreads the load more evenly

*eyes up Sugru stash*


And there's always the dasmoth solution...

[jogler]

This

http://www.play.com/Sports-Outdoors/Sports/4-/20019570/Beaver-Discovery-Prescription-Diving-Snorkelling-Mask/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:20019571%7Cprd:20019571

should be kind to your nose bridge.

Do I get a masturbating Welshman with that?

You have a choice of a Scouse WVM or a Brummie BMW driver: both masturbating & on the mobile phone whilst driving.

[mrcharly-YHT]

erm, several things come to mind

A bit of witchhazel on the skin to help toughen it up.

consider different nose pads - maybe ask your optician if you could try some silicon pads instead of hard plastic, or visa versa

If it's due to a temp issue (an insect bite made your nose sore and soreness has persisted?), then try re-jigging the nosepiece shape for a few weeks so that there is no rubbing on the sore bit. This should allow it to heal. Combine this with witchhazel.

Much sympathy have I. A minor bump on ear made sore spot behind arm of glasses - it got to running bleeding sore stage over months before I sorted it. Very very annoying.

[vorsprung]

contact lenses and one of these magic hats