Do you think glasses take away from or add to a person's appearance?

I am neutral on this subject. If the person wearing glasses gets some outlandish or weird kind of frames it detracts from their good looks. Otherwise, I hardly notice.

It really depends on the glasses and the person who is wearing them. Some women look amazing in glasses. The right glasses on a person who is wearing them confidently can add a whole new level of sex appeal, interest, and beauty. The wrong glasses, or someone who is clearly uncomfortable with them, can make a person look awkward. Usually though, like @scamp, I see glasses as neutral. They’re just there.

I find that most people look better to me when wearing glasses; and I have had others tell me the same (I thought I was a lone weirdo).

My theory is that both of my parents wore glasses and my elder siblings got glasses at young ages, so I was “imprinted” to seeing faces with glasses on them.

Interesting mhmm…..

@Likeradar I agree with you, I think most people look much better in glasses, but then again I’ve always worn them, and so have both my parents.

I just feel like my face is naked without them.

I think everyone looks better to me in glasses, but that is because I have worn mine since 4th grade. I hated the hard contacts and got rid of them in 1978.

Without my glasses, everyone looks the same; blurry and potato-shaped.

I think females with glasses are sexy. I think females without glasses are sexy.

I prefer glasses. I’ve heard that some surveys show that people think that people who wear glasses are smarter.

As always in life, it depends.

You can look extremely attractive in glasses. Here’s a pictorial example of a good looking girl and one of a guy (although it’s admittedly harder to find guys who look good in glasses). Interestingly enough guys tend to look ‘cooler’ with sunglasses, as evidenced here (but women look great in sunglasses too).

Or you can also look gorgeous without glasses (see Miss Universe 2008 [such a stunner] and Ben Stiller).

I suppose it also depends on what look you’re going for. Sunglasses are meant more for the cool holiday. It just becomes plain stupidity to wear them indoors (although transition lenses are beginning to blur the boundaries).

Of course, it all also depends on what you’re wearing with your glasses.

So many factors. Glasses are only one of them.

I think it depends on the person and their style. I have seen women who look incredible in glasses and some men who are so handsome with them.

Very rarely do they actually detract from a person’s appearance, IMO. I find it is only when they choose frames that are completely wrong for them.

I find appearance is generally improved after 4 or 5 glasses.

Beautiful women wearing glasses look smart. Smart women wearing glasses look beautiful.

I think glasses are sexy!

I think unless a person opts for some really outlandish frame, a la Adam Ant, or Mr. Peabody, glasses add to a person’s facial character.

Speaking as a female glasses wearer, I think I look fine either way. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 5. It’s all about getting the right shape and colour frames to suit your face’s shape and colouring. I love Mr. Peabody, BTW.

I wore glasses for years, then went to contacts. Due to the severe allergies in Texas, I had to give them up. I was able to go without them except while driving for years, but due to eye changes, I had to get new ones in March. I have clear & sunglass both. I like them. I think I now look funny without them. I love my frames. They’re just a thin wire frame. They’re just a part of me now. Plus, I need to see!

Male or female, it depends on the appearance of the person and of the glasses.

Yes
No
Yes
No

I don’t think anyone looks bad or ugly in glasses, but I don’t really find it attractive in other guys. It sort of hides their eyes.

I love my glasses, even though they aren’t technically prescription glasses, they have a cute retro frame with rhinestones on the sides….see (last picture on the page)

Dame Edna
, looking very classy.

I think I look much better with glasses and I really like glasses on men but glasses are a bit of pain…

I’m not a huge fan of my own appearance when it comes to glasses and to be honest most of the people (male and female) I have found attractive have not worn glasses however, like other people have said, it depends on the style of glasses and the person wearing them. Anastacia for example ROCKS glasses and if I looked like her I would be PROUD to look wear my glasses!

<—-you can tell me…

You can be the judge here, ha ha!!

Oh it adds! Guys with glasses are adorable!

Scamp is always lovely : )

I forgot to put this part in my earlier post, please add:

I think girls who don’t wear glasses are sexy when they put a pair of glasses on.
I think girls who wear glasses are sexy when they take their glasses off.

I have worn glasses since 6th grade, but needed them long before.
When I was 23 I got contact lenses. Suddenly, everyone is angry with me. People want to fight!
The contacts were too uncomfortable, and I went back to glasses. Everyone starts acting friendly again.
A friend of mine said that when I wore contacts, my gaze was suddenly a hard scowl, and I looked like I was angry all the time (though I wasn’t). The glasses soften my appearence.

I have worn glasses all my life and hated them. They fog up when you go inside, they get spotty in the rain or snow, they get in your way when you dance or kiss, they fall off, get broken. A total pain for me.

But contacts never worked because I have astigmatism however I recently tried the newest disposables and loved them. But my close up vision has deteriorated with age so that I would have to wear reading glasses over the contacts. Sometimes life is just not fair!

Have you ever considered the laser treatment? I know a dozen or so people who have had it and are all thrilled with the result.

@rooeytoo: I have a similar situation. But I don’t need readers often, so I wear the contacts most of the time, and my progressive lenses on occasion.

I’ve been told that the same is true for Lasik, though… the vision will still change to where readers will become necessary for most people. I am also wondering about long-term implications… what if someone who’s had keratotomy surgery gets a cataract or other eye problems down the road? Will treatment options be limited? So I make do with contacts and glasses for now.

@hearkat – I know maybe 15–20 people who have had Lasik and all are happy. The one who had it first is dead now so I don’t know if he is still happy or not. Of the rest I think it is probably about a maximum of 15 years since they had it but none are quite at the cataract stage yet.

Without correction, my ability to read fine print is excellent however as soon as those contacts went in, the distance vision was like a miracle but everything else was terrible. I could barely read the speedometer in the car. I thought at first it was just the drastic change but I had them in for about 6 hours and it didn’t get any better. I was so disappointed!

@rooeytoo: Just be grateful for vision. I wear bifocals, have a pair of computer glasses at the computer, and music glasses at the piano. When I go to the library, I forget the computer glasses; if I want to read the titles on a bottom shelf, I have to lie on the floor and look sideways, which gets people to look at me sideways.

I joke that if I had been born in the seventeeth century, I’d have walked off a cliff or into a rhino by now.

@gailcalled – I know what you mean about the lying on the floor, and I seem to have a chronically stiff neck from trying to get my head in just the right position for the bifocals to be effective.

But yes, I am grateful, my mom had macular degeneration and was almost blind by 71, hopefully diet and exercise will keep me going a lot longer!

I’m quite impressed by the fact that everyone here pretty much seems to like the appearance of glasses on other people. I think I’ve decided that I will usually wear glasses, but if I’m skydiving, swimming, deep sea diving, etc., I’ll wear my contacts then. They do come in handy. But I think glasses just fit my face better. I make them look good….jk ;)

@rooeytoo I’ve never considered lasik because I always liked wearing glasses too much and I don’t have the money for it. Perhaps later in my life I’ll consider it. But, like you, I also have astigmatism so the contacts I’m wearing right now are bigger than normal which makes them hard for me to get in :(

@deni – I too am surprised, I always felt like the 4 eyes kid! It is nice to know.

It is. Thanks, fluther, for raising my confidence!!!!!!!!!!!

@rooeytoo: I can read all but the tiniest print of serial numbers on hearing aids with my naked eye, so I don’t need much reader correction. I started wearing the AcuVue Oasys contacts for astigmatism, and they have not made my reading vision notably worse. Although I will add that my O.D. said that my left eye is between prescriptions, and she gave me the weaker one to help with the close-up stuff.

@deni: It is the activities that made me get contact lenses again. Plus I like to wear regular sunglasses rather than the clip ons. Since it’s now summertime, i only wear the glasses once or twice a week, but that will likely increase during the darker months.

@hearkat i hear you on the sunglasses. I feel so liberated to be able to wear sunglasses now, its like a whole different world. Forget those horrible solar shields that go over your glasses. I sort of wore them as a joke, but then again they were functional. But besides myself, I’ve never seen them on anyone under 80.

I have always sprung for prescription sun glasses.

@gailcalled: I hate having to carry 2 pairs of glasses around, and I like having a couple different pairs that match different outfits. Before they came out with the newer magnetic and snap-on ‘shields’ (as @deni calls them) I would turn my old glasses into sunglasses whenever I bought a new pair.

@hearkat:I now carry three pairs around; one bifocal, one bifocal sunglasses and one for computers, plus a soft case and spare batteries for Oticon.

@gailcalled: I guess you don’t need to worry about your bone-density… carrying all that is enough weight-bearing exercise for one person! :-D

@hearkat: My purse is big enough for Milo, also. He is, perforce, an 11 lb. dumb bell.

@gailcalled: Pun intended? HaHaHa!
My felines would never stay in a bag like those designer doggies—does Milo really ride in there?

@hearkat: Not yet, but he could, in a pinch.

cheebdragon is always lovely too!

Milo: I am thinking of getting glasses like Dame Edna’s but with no Rx. But the question is, can I be more handsome than I am now?

@Milo: I doubt that more handsome could be possible in your case; but perhaps “more distinguished”?

@Gail I thought you were talking about your cat getting glasses for a second lol, isn’t his name Milo?

MIlo here: C’est moi. I occasionally write something profound on this site.

Depends on the person and the glasses. The right frames can make someone actually look better than without them and if they are confident and carry themselves well they can even look better.