How to Keep Glasses From Slipping When Running
Runners know that when it gets hot, your glasses start to slip! This is true with sunglasses but more likely to occur with prescription glasses.
It can make it difficult to see where you’re running, and you may worry about your glasses falling off and breaking.
Thankfully we have some tried-and-true tips from runners on how to keep glasses from slipping while running.
Try them so that both you and your glasses can stay safe and you can enjoy your run without worrying!
Why Do My Glasses Slip When Running?
Eyeglasses or sunglasses tend to slide down your nose when you sweat. Even if it’s just a little bit, sweat combined with running and gravity can cause them to slide down your nose.
This can happen even if you have sunglasses that fit perfectly. In some cases, they can also slip because the frames are a bit too wide, you’re bouncing too much or running on rough terrain, or you have naturally oily skin.
How to Keep Eyeglasses From Slipping?
1. Fit Your Glasses to the Size of Your Head
Make sure your glasses are the right size for your head or face. They should not be tight enough beyond your ears that you feel pain, but they shouldn’t be able to fall off easily when you lean over.
If you’re unsure about an average pair of casual sunglasses, you should consider buying a pair of running sunglasses or eyeglasses.
They are more durable and usually made to fit more snugly while remaining comfortable.
They usually have soft rubber on the arms to grip your head and stay stable even when running.
2. Get an Eyewear Band
You can also consider getting an eyewear band—like the Chums Slip Fit Rope Eyewear Retainer—which is a string that attaches to each arm of your glasses and can be tightened behind your head to keep your sunglasses firmly in place.
They are affordable, so you buy a few different ones to always have one around to use. Even when you aren’t running, using an eyewear band will prevent damage to your glasses if they fall off when you bend over.
3. Temple Earhook
A temple earhook, like the like the GMS Optical Premium Grade Comfortable Silicone Anti-Slip Holder for Glasses, is another easy and affordable way to keep your glasses safe on your head when you’re running.
They slip onto the arm of your glasses. Then you slide them up to fit right behind your ears and stop your glasses from moving. You can also get them in many colors, plus they’re affordable.
4. Stick-On Nose Pad
If your glasses don’t have nose pads on them already, you can easily add them so that your glasses stay in place more easily.
You can buy sets of stick-on nose pads like the Setex Eyeglass Nose Pads, which are designed to grip your skin without causing discomfort even when your skin is sweaty.
They can be used on glasses of any kind as long as they have a thick enough frame, and they last 4 to 6 weeks if you sweat moderately.
5. Wax Coating
A wax coating is similar to a nose pad. It provides friction between your skin and the glasses’ frame, preventing it from slipping down even when you’re sweating.
The sweat and the wax don’t mix, so there’s little chance of sweat making the glasses fall when there’s wax on them.
A product like Nerdwax is easy to use. You just apply it to the frame where it will be sitting on your nose.
It’s virtually invisible and you also won’t be able to feel it. Depending on how thick a layer you apply, it can last from an hour to a full day before needing to be reapplied.
6. Friction Sleeve, Socks, or Heat Shrink Tubes
If the tip of the arm of your glasses is secure against your head, the glasses shouldn’t slip when you run.
You can buy friction sleeves—also known as glasses socks or shrink tubes—which fit onto the end of the arms of your favorite running sunglasses and sit against your head behind your ears.
They create friction between your skin and the glasses arms, keeping them firmly in place as you move.
You can buy a pair like the XIANEWS Silicone Eyeglasses Temple Tips Sleeves, but note that they are silicone and won’t be suitable for people with a silicone allergy.
7. Hair Ties, Rubber Bands, or Tape
If you don’t have any of the above tools but have hair ties or rubber bands at home, you can tie them around the ends of your glasses to create friction against your head.
If one isn’t enough, you can use two on each tip to form a bigger area for friction. It may not look as nice as friction sleeves, but it will help to keep glasses from slipping when running.
If you don’t have either of those, but you have smooth tape like insulation tape, you can also wrap some of this tape around the tips of your glasses’ arms.
This will offer some friction against your skin and keep the glasses in place. You should also be able to find tape in the same color as any sunglasses you may have, which will make it less conspicuous.
8. Cable Temples
Cable temples are excessively curved side arms that wrap around the back of and underneath your ear.
This helps keep glasses from slipping when running by holding them firmly in place, using your ears as anchor points.
However, cable temples are usually more effective for thin wire frames found on eyeglasses and not for sports sunglasses.
You can fashion your own cable temples for sports sunglasses, but it’s more convenient to instead buy a set of friction sleeves or a temple hook.
A temple hook will serve the same purpose, but it can fit on more different types of sunglasses than a cable temple.
9. Tighten Them
In most cases, you can tighten your own glasses to fit your face and head. Opticians can tighten them mechanically to create a more secure fit, or you can bend them slightly on the rim or along the temple to fit more closely.
For some people, this will be enough to keep glasses from slipping when running. However, you may need to tighten your glasses along with what we suggested above to keep them properly in place.
