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Home›Eyewear›Caring for your glasses
Looking after them

Make your glasses last

Five habits that add years — and the ones that quietly destroy lenses

Most of the damage we see isn't bad luck. It's the same handful of everyday habits, repeated a few hundred times. Change those and a pair of glasses will comfortably outlast your prescription.

What ruins glasses → How to clean them
two hands · lens spray · never the dashboard
The usual suspects

Five things that quietly destroy glasses

In rough order of how often we see them. None of these are careless — they're just habits nobody has ever been told to change.

01

Cleaning a dry lens

This is the single biggest cause of scratched lenses, and almost everyone does it. Dust on a lens is grit. Wiping it dry with a shirt, tissue or paper towel drags that grit across the surface — you're effectively sanding your lenses.

Never wipe a dry lens. Use a proper lens spray — it lifts the grit so the cloth glides over it instead of dragging it. Then dry with a clean microfibre cloth.
02

Taking them off with one hand

Pulling glasses off by one temple twists the frame every single time. Do it twice a day for a year and the frame ends up permanently skewed — one lens sitting higher than the other, which quietly ruins how well you see through them.

Two hands, straight back off your face. It feels fussy for about a week, then it's automatic.
03

Heat

Heat is what destroys lens coatings. A dashboard in summer easily passes 60 °C, which is enough to make anti-reflective coating craze into a fine spider-web pattern. That damage is permanent and isn't covered by any warranty.

Never leave glasses in a parked car. Same goes for saunas, near an oven, on a radiator, or blasted with a hair dryer.
04

Household cleaners

Window cleaner, all-purpose spray and anything with ammonia or alcohol will strip the coatings off a modern lens. So will hairspray, perfume, sunscreen and insect repellent if they land on the lens and sit there.

Use a lens spray made for coated lenses. It's formulated to clean without attacking the coating. Anything else that lands on the lens — hairspray, sunscreen — is worth cleaning off promptly.
05

Resting them on your head

It's the most natural thing in the world and it stretches the temples outward every time. Stretched temples mean glasses that slide down your nose — which then get pushed back up by a finger on the bridge, bending them further.

Use the case, or hang them on your collar. And if they're slipping, that's a sign they need adjusting, not a finger-push.
Do it properly

How to clean a lens without wrecking it

Lens spray and a microfibre cloth. Thirty seconds, twice a day — that's the whole method.

1

Shake off the grit

If they're visibly dusty or sandy, give them a shake or a quick rinse first. Grit is what scratches.

2

Spray generously

Lens spray on both surfaces. Don't be shy with it — the liquid is what lifts the dirt off the coating.

3

Wipe with microfibre

Gentle circles across both sides. Let the cloth glide; there's no need to press.

4

Buff dry

Finish with a dry part of the cloth to clear any streaking.

5

Keep the cloth clean

Wash it now and then — no fabric softener. A dirty cloth just moves grit around.

Do
  • Rinse before you wipe, every time.
  • Take them off with both hands.
  • Put them in the case, not face down.
  • Keep a spare lens spray and cloth in the car and at your desk.
  • Bring them in when they start feeling loose, rather than waiting.
Don't
  • Use your shirt, a tissue or paper towel.
  • Leave them on a dashboard or windowsill.
  • Use window cleaner, alcohol wipes or anything with ammonia.
  • Rest them on your head or hook them on your collar by one arm.
  • Tighten the screws yourself with a kitchen screwdriver.
Sound familiar?

Common problems, and what they actually mean

My glasses keep sliding down my nose
Almost always a fit problem rather than anything to do with the lenses. Temples have stretched, nose pads have splayed, or the frame was never adjusted properly to begin with. It's a five-minute fix. Don't compensate by pushing them up at the bridge — that bends them further.
One lens looks higher than the other
The frame has twisted, usually from one-handed removal or from being slept on. Your eyes are still looking through the right part of each lens, but not at the right height, which can cause eye strain and headaches. Bring them in.
There's a fine cracked pattern across the lens
That's coating crazing, and it's heat damage — a hot car, a radiator, or a hair dryer. Unfortunately it can't be polished out. The lens has to be replaced. It also isn't covered by warranty, because it's environmental rather than a manufacturing fault.
The lenses look permanently smeared
Usually residue from hairspray, sunscreen, moisturiser or cooking oils that has built up over months. Give them a thorough clean with lens spray, going over them twice. If a film remains after that, the coating itself has likely been damaged.
The nose pads have gone yellow and hard
Silicone nose pads perish over time from skin oils and sweat. They're a consumable — cheap and quick to replace, and new ones make a surprising difference to comfort.
There's a small scratch right in my line of sight
Scratches can't be removed or filled. Polishing a lens changes its optics and makes the problem worse. If it's genuinely in your line of sight, replacing the lens is the only real fix.
My glasses feel tight behind the ears
The temples need easing out slightly, or the bend needs moving further back. Tightness behind the ears is one of the most common causes of headaches that people wrongly blame on their prescription.

Most of these are a quick fix in the chair. If you bought your glasses here, adjustments and minor repairs are part of looking after you — just drop in. Ask us about lens spray and cloths while you're there. See our repair policy →

Something not sitting right?

Bring them in and we'll take a look. Most adjustments take a few minutes.

Get in touch →