Wearing a face mask and glasses at the same time poses one small (but fixable) issue: your glasses keep fogging up. This is completely normal and occurs when your warm breath escapes the top of the mask and hit the cold glasses lens, causing them to fog up.
With mask-wearing mandatory in Victoria and recommended for residents in New South Wales, it’s something everyone needs to become comfortable with as it’ll be our reality for a while yet. So, if you’re dealing with foggy glasses, here are a few fixes…
— Rest your glasses on top of your mask
If the mask isn’t sitting flush against your nose, this is allowing the warm air to escape upwards and cause the steam room effect. To prevent this from happening, try resting your glasses on top of your mask.
Pull your mask up your nose as high as you can (the mask should still be sitting under your chin too) and rest your glasses on top in order to close off that opening and it should result in less foggy specs.
— Try soap and water
Another trick is to wash your glasses in soap and water (washing up liquid will work) and dry them with a microfibre cloth (like the one the glasses came with). Avoid drying them with tissues as these can leave lint on the glasses, which in turn attracts moisture. According to The New York Times, soap acts as a surfactant and leaves behind a thin film that stops the water molecules from forming that usually lead to fog.
— Tape the mask down
If you’re having real fog-related issues, simply popping a thin line of tape across the top of your mask to secure it to your nose will help — this is what many health professionals do. The Conversation recommends using surgical tape (which you can find at the chemist) as this is designed to come in contact with skin.
— Make sure you’re wearing the right size mask
Many reusable masks come in different sizes so make sure you have the correct size. If the mask is too big, this will be exacerbating the fog issue as the mask is allowing so much of your warm breath to escape. If you can, try to tighten the ear loops as well.
“If the air is going out the top, you don’t have your mask on correctly,” Shan Soe-Lin, a lecturer at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, told The New York Times. “Most of the breath should be going through the mask. If you feel the air going in or out around the mask, tighten the ties.”
Alternatively, Cleveland Clinic recommends investing in a mask with wire in the nose area as this allows you to bend it to your nose and trap in the air to prevent your glasses from fogging.
— Insert a damp tissue
Fold a slightly dampened tissue up and place it under the top edge of the mask on top of your nose and according to The Conversation, this should stop your glasses from fogging as the tissue catches the moisture from your breath.