I have not read all the respones but I wear my contacts about 85% on the time. I feel more comfortable using my glasses on the weekends than during the week. I recently purchased new glasses and then left them in Atlanta when I went to see my Mom. I should get them back this week. I enjoy wearing the new ones so that is a plus.

Kari - the turning point for me really was when I stopped "hiding" behind my boring glasses (oh, no one will notice me here, I can just blend into the backgrond) and really used them as my major fashion accessory - which meant finding stand-out frames. Having them be so noticable conveys the message that they are an intentional accessory - I'm not wearing them because I'm too lazy to wear contacts, or because I don't care about my appearance.

That being said, I think you look gorgeous with or without your specs!

This is an interesting one Kari! Just this morning I opted for glasses - because my outfit was simple and uncomplicated, consisting of red button down and jeans, so my only accessories were silver cufflinks, silver necklace and my glasses

Normally, I wear contacts most of the time. They are more practical for my lifestyle and style in general, and with the lively boy to look after I also don't have to worry about glasses being dropped accidentally. Contacts also leave me more room for accessorizing, as the frames I have are quite bold (for me at least) so I don't want to overdo it with anything else when I wear them.

I only wear glasses, but I have four pairs in rotation although my faves are the purple and citron. I need them for distance and have a fear of touching my eye. I treat all my frames as neutrals, even though none of them are (green, blue, red, purple) and don't match them to outfits. I like that funky glasses have become a signature look for me - since I have to wear them anyway, they might as well be part of my style!

My husband actually finds glasses sexy. I don't know which came first for him though, me or the love of glasses! He's all about Tina Fey's hot/smart look, for instance.

I need glasses or contacts for everything but reading.

Confession: I do not like wearing glasses at all. I don't like the way they feel, I find them beyond annoying when it's raining, and I don't like the sensation of there being something between me and what I'm looking at.

Also, I think it's a lot more difficult to look stylish in glasses when you have very curly hair that is prone to fuzz. Seriously -- it's far easier to look great in specs when you have sleek hair.

But, in recent years I have been plagued with dry eyes, so I can only wear contacts for a few hours at a time now. And when I do have them in, I can't see up close anymore.

April, that's so interesting about the curly hair/glasses/chic thing. I think you might be onto something. All I know is that whenever I wear my glasses out and about, I am called "Ma'am" a lot more often :). I agree with you about how glasses feel--I am totally with you, especially that something-in-between-me-and-the-world feeling. I don't really feel like *myself* in glasses.

Re. dry eyes: I use Restasis for them (by prescription drops twice/day).

Re. not being able to see up close with contacts: I wear monovision lenses and they work great! You should give them a try!

I wear both contacts and glasses. For a while, I would only wear contacts on special occasions, especially during the winter (during the summer, I prefer contacts because I can wear sungalsses with them). But recently, due to some real frustrations with prescription glasses being too strong for me (and even the replacements giving me headaches), I've been wearing my contacts more and more. It's not a comfort issue (though I do find some...weariness after a long day of wearing contacts), more of a sheer laziness thing as glasses I can just put on and go, whereas with contacts I have to go to the bathroom, wash my hands with soap and dry them thoroughly with a towel, and put them in, and sometimes I have mishaps while putting them in. Also, if I know that I'll need to take a nap or a shower soon after, I don't bother with contacts.

ETA: I've been told that I look good with glasses, but I prefer my look without, especially since the plastic frame glasses that do look good on my face have an unfortunate habit of sliding down my nose.

I have to wear glasses from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. I can not see ANYTHING without them.

I really wish I could wear contacts. I tried once, but was too skeeved out by the idea of putting my finger in my eye that I just couldn't do it. Seriously, it took me an hour to put in ONE contact. Plus, I could never tell which side I was supposed to put in because,hello! Blind! And my eyes would get really dry, and the lenses would get incredibly dirty after just a short time - I felt like Pigpen (from Charlie Brown.)

Actually, that happens with my glasses too, and I think it has something to do with the oils around my eyes. If I don't wear mascara, it's like the oils slip down my eyelashes onto my glasses. How bizarre is that?

Jonesy - one doctor suggested the monovision contacts for me, and I wanted to try that, but I just couldn't get past the finger in my eye thing. Sometimes I think I'd like to try again, but my eyes are so old now and my vision is so bad - my doctor said stick with the glasses.

I don't like wearing glasses, because my eyes used to be my best feature. People would compliment their color, but since I now wear glasses all the time, no one can see my eyes anymore.

It's pure vanity, I know, but I miss those compliments!

Kari - I have prescription sunglasses (I have very sensitive eyes) and yes, it's a pain in the ass to switch. I have transitions in my regular glasses, but they don't work in the car (something about the proper amount of light not getting through the car windows to trigger the darkening affect.) So I keep my prescription sunglasses in the car for driving. I LOVE transitions, and could never have glasses without that feature again! But I do have to have a pair of prescription sunglasses as well. It's very expensive, but what can you do? I'd love my next pair of RX sunglasses to be a pair of classic tortoiseshell Ray-Bans!

I used to wear contacts all day long during my teens, and would leave my glasses for home-use only. Actually, my glasses even grew old to the point that the day I wasn't able to wear the contacts, I would feel horrible in them (they were really, really old-fashioned). They I got a new pair of glasses, but still wore the contacts most of the time.

These past five years, however, I've developed an intolerance to contacts -any type-, so I'm stuck with glasses. I miss the contacts so much! They don't bother you in the summer, you feel prettier and you see better, no glass can beat contacts in terms of vision quality. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until I can go under surgery!

I was really interested in Sarah's reply, because I do almost all the same things, but always wear glasses!

I started wearing glasses for nearsightedness at age 8, wore hard contacts for a couple of years in my teens, but otherwise glasses. Thanks to old age, I now have progressives.

I live in bright sunny Colorado, so I have prescription sunglasses (Adidas sport sunglasses). I wear glasses while biking, wheelchair racing, and weightlifting.

Swimming: I looked into prescription goggles, but that seemed too expensive. My optometrist gave me contacts in my distance prescription to wear under the goggles in the pool, but then if I wanted to read anything I had to wear reading glasses over them, and it was all just too complicated! So I keep my glasses with my stuff at the edge of the pool, and when I have to see something (the next set in the workout, the clock, whatever) I pop up my goggles and put on my glasses.

Una, my DH is also a glasses man :).

Kari, I have not read all the responses here, as now there are so many! But here's my opinion: glasses are indeed a type of 'face jewellery', and they can be ultra stylish. They can also make you look smarter, or more business-like. However, almost nobody looks PRETTIER with their glasses on. Does that make sense? Glasses are an accessory you can have fun with. A woman might look more funky and hip with glasses than without, but it's a rare woman who looks more beautiful when wearing glasses.

I might be starting a firestorm by saying this, but I believe it to be true.

The same does not always hold true for men. There are quite a few men who look more handsome with their glasses on -- to my eye, at least -- although there are also many men who, like women, look better with them off. I'm not sure why this is.

For the record, I have never worn contacts, but I wear glasses occasionally. My vision only needs a slight correction, so other than wearing them for going to the movies, I don't really need them. However, if I feel like looking funky, bookish or intelligent (!!), I might wear them just for the look of the thing. So to speak.

I wear my contacts all the time. Although, this worries me a bit, because I'm told I have "eyelid droop" now. As in my eyelids don't retract all the way back when I open my eyes. Then again, I don't entirely believe this came after the contacts.

Anyways, I wear them all the time because they don't move when I'm doing something active. I mean, riding a horse with glasses is a big pain in the fanny.

Glasses are definitely another place to apply fashion and style to. I will say this, though, people look really different in and out of glasses, and glasses do obscure the face a bit. Some people would really rather not have that obstacle in the way when looking at others. It occurs to me they may be folks who have a little more trouble than others reading facial expressions.

Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts and opinions about this subject - it's been so intriguing to read the comments.

I do find it interesting that many feel that they - or that women in general - look more attractive without glasses. I honestly don't know what I think of that.

I used to feel far much less pretty in glasses, but my frames were also not very flattering. Now, although glasses are something I grab over contacts most of the time when I'm in a hurry, I don't feel less attractive with them. I tend to think of them more like a strategic accessory, like choosing a scarf over a necklace, that I can choose to pair with my outfit of the day. That change in perspective has made wearing glasses feel more like a choice than a chore, and definitely more fun than it used to be when I felt like glasses were my "backup plan" if contacts weren't working for me on a certain day.

Boy, does this thread hit close for me. I have to admit that nothing, *nothing* makes me feel more unattractive than wearing glasses.

I've had vision correction since I was 8. Early adolescence, with wild curly hair and a succession of late 1970s style glasses, was not pretty. When I got contacts at 14, I said goodbye to my glasses and never again owned a pair until 4 years ago. I wore my contacts from the time I woke up until the minute I washed my face and went to bed.

That's until dry eye syndrome reared its ugly head. I fought blazing red eyes and swollen lids on and off for 2 years. And with a sinking heart, I bought my first pair of glasses since 1982. My eyes have calmed in the last year or so but remain very sensitive and I dread the day when contacts may no longer be an option.

Beyond that, I also dislike the feel of having a barrier in front of my eyes, the aggravation of having them slip when I'm hot and sweaty, the difficulty of athletic activity when wearing them, and the loss of peripheral vision.

I've always admired how very fab YLFers look in their specs and Angie is of course the Queen of Fab Glasses. Obviously, I just need to get over my own psychological hump:)

I always had to do both everyday. I would wear contacts anytime I walked out of the house and my glasses as soon as I was home for the day. A high prescription made glasses uncomfortable, even with thin weight lenses. And contacts were always scratchy from dry eye.

Ouch, Lisa, that sounds miserable.

I guess I would have a pretty different perspective if glasses were actually uncomfortable, or didn't work well with my prescription, or if I couldn't wear contacts at all. That would make me start thinking seriously about Lasik. As is, though, the thought of Lasik freaks me out - seriously, I'm jumpy even having my eyes dilated! - and I'm having so much fun with glasses lately that Lasik isn't even on my radar.

This is kind of off topic, but I think of it the same way as I do breast reduction - my breast size might be inconvenient sometimes, and I have to spend more on high-quality bras than a lot of women do, but they also don't cause me pain and aren't radically out of proportion with my shape or size. If one or both of those situations were the case I'd probably consider a reduction, but at this point it's not something that I could see doing.

I wear glasses for almost everything and now seldom wear contacts anymore.

Pre-kids I wore them most days to work, but switched to glasses in the evening. I don't have a high tolerance to contacts and have had some painful incidents where the contact lense ripped and I had a fragment left in my eye, in one case for months.

Since I got my YLF approved frames, I feel like wearing glasses automatically gives me an accessory, and since I am the sort to forget about accessories if rushed this is an advantage!

The only loser is my husband, who knew me before I wore glasses and prefers me without them. But he doesn't grudge my comfort.

Great post, Kari! I have bifocal RPG contacts and LOVE them! I got to the point about 5 years ago when it became difficult to focus on fine print with my old lenses. I was using cheaters over my contacts and it was a pain. I had been wearing the rigid lenses for years and my eye doctor suggested switching to bifocal version. They work so well for me. I switched to the Clear Care cleansing routine about 2 years ago. No more problems with protein buildup.

I am very nearsighted and have much better vision with contacts, so I wear them all day long and switch to my glasses in the evening. The biggest problem I encounter is that my eyes don't adapt as easily and as quickly now going from contacts to glasses. I think this has to do with age.

For those of you that have problems wearing glasses for athletics because of slide, bounce, or falling off you just haven't found the right pair. Mine are the bendy translucent plastic frames a couple of manufacturers make. They are lighter than air and you can get them with the backs that hook around your ears (like some kids glasses). Since I already have anti-fog on my lenses and they sit pretty far from my eyes I could do anything but contact sports in mine.

Elly, not to get too gross, but the issue I have with wearing glasses for athletics is primarily sweat on my nose & over my ears, which cause normally secure glasses to slip (or just make me more sweaty.) I tried taking a yoga class once in glasses where we spent a lot of time with our heads inverted and it was pretty laughable - I ended the class with sweat spots all over my lenses, too. I also worry, even though the glasses are pretty secure, that they'll slip off by accident if I'm doing something like Scottish country dancing or running that involves a lot of bouce/movement, so I would only do it with one of my "backup" glasses rather than my newer frames.

I wear glasses almost all the time now but I HATE THEM. I hate the feeling of something on my face. I feel like they separate me from the world and inhibit how I look around and move. I hate everything about them. I tried contacts about 10 years ago, but my eyes are too dry so that the contacts stick and don't move properly. I have heard that there are a lot of new options out for contacts now, so maybe I should try again. The glasses I do have are rimless because I feel comfortable with as little as possible on my face. I am contemplating getting something more stylish, but I just don't know if I would ever feel good.

I am still reading all the responses here and it's very interesting. I got glasses for the fist time about 18 months ago. They are mostly for reading and I wear them when I am on the computer (bit I am being naughty and am not wearing them now ). I have four pairs, all different, black plastic with red flowers on the arms, plain black metal - both of these pairs are the more square type with a slight upwards slant. My other pairs are purple with blue and green with black and are more of a retro, oval shape. I definitely consider them fashion accessories and chose a different pair each day depending on what I am wearing. The black metal go with everything so are a good fallback pair. I am still getting used ton seeing myself wearing them. Some days I think they look great, other days not so sure. Given I don't need them all the time contacts are not an option.

Crazyone we are twins. I am just the same.

I have been reading all of your comments and really appreciate this thread. I wear glasses for driving and for the theatre and movies.
I am slightly near-sighted and can read without glasses for the most part. I do not really like myself in glasses. I think the curly hair thing is definitely an issue- it does not really work that well. Angie is a perfect example of how glasses can enhance polish and geometry. (Not my look) I do love the larger nerd type frames and would like to possibly invest in a pair.
Have been looking for years. I would probably see better if I wore glasses more often but was told by a holistic doctor that it is better to allow your eyes to be without as much as possible, (have heard contrary opinions about that.)
I tried to get contacts but was told by a very nasty eyedoctor that I was not a good candidate because my eyes did not produce enough tears.
I am very against wearing my glasses all the time, My eyes are the best feature on my face and I think my nose is too big. Glasses seem to make that seem worse. I may try to get a second opinion on the contact issue but the idea does seem painful.
In the meantime I just do not wear them much and hope my eyesight stays the same, it has not been a big issue yet.

http://www.eyeglasses4you.net/.....6206c.html

My glasses have loop earpieces similar to the ones in the link above. They hook more fully around the ear (although mine don't make a full loop and are made of lovely soft bendy plastic). Even when sweaty or inverted those suckers are staying on. The only downfall is having sweat drip onto the glasses, but I suppose you have the same issue when sweat drips into your eyes and it beads off of mine well.

My eyes are too dry to wear contacts. I have tried them for several times and my eyes turn out to be red, so I always wear glasses. In recent two years, I had got many pairs of glasses from Zenni Optical and loved them. Zenni has fashion-forward frames, traditional frames, funky frames, etc. --no lie. It’s a great place for eyeglasses.

I always wear glasses. I'm one of those crazy people who actually loves wearing glasses and had always wanted to wear them from an early age and could not wait to get them when I found out I was nearsighted and had astigmatism when I was 15. From that first day I felt as if this was how I was supposed to be and I felt complete.

Prior to getting glasses I was also very shy, but after getting glasses I became a much more confident person and basically came out of my shell. My eye doctor thinks its because I feel like I'm hiding behind my glasses, which might be true, but I think it comes from always wanting to wear glasses and feeling incomplete before I got them or maybe a combination of the two.

Today, I have several pair that I rotate thru depending on how I feel, what I'm doing, where I'm going, etc. my favorite pair by far are my rimless frames that I truly love; they are light have progressive Transitions lenses and have a certain feel to them that are just so comfortable that they are my go to glasses more than any other. Perhaps my love for them comes from wanting a pair since the late 70's when a friend got hers and I could never find a pair that I really liked until about a year ago.

I did try contacts In the early 80's, but reluctantly. My sister who really loved her contacts, thought I would love them too and kept bugging me to try them and would not let up, so to shut her up, I agreed to try them. Well long story short I just didn't like them, it wasn't because I had problems with them or anything because I didn't; I actually blew my eye doctor away when I put them in and took them out without any problems on the first and second try's and he was convinced I had worn them before, which I hadn't. I just didn't feel right and missed wearing my glasses and could not wait to end the trial so I could go back to wearing my glasses. I finally had enough after about three months and remember the day my sister saw me in my glasses and asked why I wasn't wearing my contacts? I told her as much as she loved wearing her contacts, I loved wearing my glasses and nothing was going to change it!

I only wear glasses. The Optometrist told me my prescription is too complicated fo contacts. I have 4 frames and am rotating. I used to have one rimless pair. I have had glasses since age 18, so I have gone through many variations on frames, but mostly I have had at least two frames to rotate.