Hiya,

Since there are probably quite a few four-eyes here, and a few of you might go to mosh pits or other places which aren't ultra suitable for glass safety, what do you do in such situations? Wear your glasses anyway, or put them away in a hard case? There can also be chains on the arms of the glasses around your neck, so they don't fall to the ground, I suppose. Being completely blind in a pit isn't exactly ideal either.

Also, I'd like to ask you if you have any experience or success with dealing with scratches. I myself managed to drop mine yesterday, and was lucky enough to get them back intact, but scratched.

I suppose there's no way really to make the scratches completely disappear, but are there any tricks to make them less visible, ie., less distracting for the wearer? I can't afford new glasses right now, but I should get my eyes checked soonish anyway, so what I'm looking for would ideally be a temporary solution.

The simple answer is wear contact lenses. If you're like me and would rather not, the way I do it is I keep the glasses on whenever I just want to watch the show and put them in their hard case and into my pocket when it's time to mosh. The way I see it, when you're moshing you don't really care to see everything around you in HD, know what I mean?

If it's a concert where I expect there to be intense crowd action, I always bring a hard case in my pocket and just stick my glasses in there if it looks like the crowd's going to start getting rowdy. It's not ideal since I'm pretty much blind without my glasses, so usually I just have to decide whether it's more important for me to hang toward the back out of the action and keep my glasses on or if I wanna get in the crowd and pretty much miss out on watching the band.

Dunno about the scratches. I've had scratches on my glasses before but never bad enough where I couldn't really see.

Yeah, not really. But it can be a problem if you can't see other moshers clearly enough to prepare for contact, etc. I'm not that blind myself, at least yet, but I guess it can be a factor.

Anyone have any experience with chains? Would they be completely useless?

Hmm, iamntbatman, here it's common that at least first two rows remain intact and people there can watch the show more or less undisturbed and headbang, and the mosh pit forms behind them. On bigger concerts it can be further behind and tiny venues are whole another thing.

I'll never understand people who are okay with poking things into their eyes! The rest of your point, yeah I'd just case em up in my pocket and jump on in. I don't need perfect vision to shove and be shoved.

I would not trust them... I prefer a hard case over such a thing. You never know what can happen once the growd gets going and you are in the middle of it.

I have heard too many stories about contacts getting stuck behind peoples eyes, or breaking in their eyes that I will never wear them. The thought of putting stuff into my eyes makes me cringe anyway.

I usually go to concerts with friends who don't mosh so I hand my glasses to them. Another good tip is giving them to a good looking girl for safekeeping. Nice way to meet ladies!

It's a lot harder for that to be successful if you're not so good looking yourself.

Oh good lord. Thanks for that! I thought those kinds of things were just my paranoid fears...

That's true here, too, but pretty often people will go camp out on the railing at the front from the moment the doors open and never budge, so unless you do that yourself you're not likely to find a relatively static spot near the front that's safe from crowd-induced glasses crushings.

I always just wear contact lenses. Glasses aren't worth the hassle at a metal concert.

The paranoid fears about lenses are exactly that. I used to be terrified of them too until I started actually wearing them, but unless you're completely incompetent you won't even know they're there until well after it's time to take them out. They can't "get stuck behind your eyes", no stories about them slipping up are true, and if something happens that tears it apart while you're wearing it, chances are you're having way bigger problems than torn lenses floating about.

Contact lenses are the tits. Fuck glasses.

My issue with contact lenses is that everyone I know that uses them cannot function without them. I don't want to build that kind of dependence. For this reason I prefer putting my glasses on only in situations where I need to see something far away (like in a lecture), then taking them off when I'm done.

Like what most people have already said, hardcases are the way to go if you're carrying your glasses.

I used to wear glasses many years ago when I started going to shows (circa 2003-04). Forget about mostpits, headbanging with glasses itself was a chore, coz half the time you'd be adjusting your glasses. Very lame. But yeah, at that time, I used to keep a hardcase in my cargo shorts when I'd really want to enjoy myself upfront or in the pits. I started wearing contact lens a few years later and by then it got really convenient. Only problem with lens is the dust/sweat and your eyeballs may dry up. If you do decide to wear lenses, it's wise to carry the lens solution/cleaner with you. You could always pour it whenever your eyes feel a bit stuffy. I got my lasik (eye correction) in 2009, so thankfully I've not had to deal with any of those problems since

My dad fixed a drawstring to the back of his sunglasses once while he worked oilfield. I think he got it from a fishing hat. They might slip out if you pull on them, but it usually takes a bit of force. So if you don't want to wear contact lenses, and you don't want to remove your glasses in a mosh pit, I guess this is the second best thing you can do.

Ive gone through the phase of always having glasses on, to always wearing contacts. After a few years I realized my eyes felt better when I was wearingg lasses so I started doing that again but I now use one day contacts for special occations. So basically, if Im out and about with friends, play a show or go to a show/game I wear the contacts. In everyday life (work etc) I use my glasses. Works fine for me.

I realize they're not the most attractive option, but having wore glasses and played sports for many years, I can recommend prescription sports wear as something that would stand up to a pit. This is just a first result from Google, but they're all the same basic design; They're designed for contact sports, so they stay in place with the strap, and most of them feature plastic impact resistant lenses. I took a baseball to the head with a pair of these on in 8th grade, and while my face was bruised, the goggles were in top shape.

I take it you don't wear rigid lenses smaller than the size of your iris.

they can be a fucking nightmare. and even if they're nice and comfortable, it's still possible to blink them out and lose 'em, costing a few hundred to replace.

I guess I've never understood why people are so afraid of contacts...I had gotten used to them within a month of wearing them when I was 13, and I was kind of a wimp back then. I haven't worn my glasses even once in the last 5 years.

The blemishes around my eyes are not a pretty sight so wearing glasses covers them up. One problem though is that my glasses are always in a state of crookedness and no amount of fixing has helped that. At most gigs I'm up against the stage so I set my eyewear down right on the edge where there's a 1 inch crook to hold it in place and out of the way of the band members stepping on it.

Well, personally, I have an allergic reaction to them. My eyes start to swell close any time I put a pair in.

I just don't like putting shit in my eyes. But luckily, I'm the only one in my immediate bloodline family that doesn't have vision complications (yet), so I don't wear anything.

A few hundred?? I know stuff can get expensive down there, but goddamn, that's insane. I can get six pairs, which can easily last the better part of a year, for a couple hundred SEK. 80NZD, tops. I can see why you'd be hesitant about it in that case, wow.

And Arkhane, no one likes it the first time, that's the best part - you get used to it so surprisingly quickly.

Allergic reactions are admittedly a pretty valid reason regardless, though. I just really, really don't like my glasses. Would get Lasik in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

My fear with contacts is falling asleep with them on. Particularly passing out drunk at a party with them. Sounds like a terrible aftermath.

Sleeping with them isn't that big a deal. If you're not used to it, your eyes might feel tough to keep open, but rubbing them usually fixes that. Your eyes might be dry and itchy, especially if you're dehydrated, but one-off there's nothing terrible about it. Uncomfortable, maybe, but not terrible. Contact lenses won't ever make your eyes explode, I promise.

Hmm, this looks interesting. Thanks, gotta consider these.

In general this is not really a terrible thing if its just the odd case. Its a different story if it happens regularly but if its one time here and there its not a biggie. And to be quite honest I've never fell asleep with them on. When I feel tired I notice that and remove them and then go to sleep. If you drink so much that you tend to just fall down and fall asleep without seeing it coming perhaps you should think more about your drinking problem than the problem of falling asleep with contacts in your eyes :/