How to Buy New Eyeglasses

Purchase glasses that flatter your face and fit your style.

Getting the right pair of glasses to flatter your face and fit with your personal style can be a challenge. With the advent of online sales, how and what to purchase can seem even more complicated. Online retailers may offer significant discounts when compared to local and large chain stores, but you won't be able to try on your glasses before you order them. The most difficult part about buying glasses is finding an affordable pair that you will like on your face and that you will feel comfortable wearing out in public.

Things You'll Need

• Eyeglass prescription

Instructions

1. Get your current eyeglass prescription from your optician or ophthalmologist.

2. Try on styles and discuss pricing options at the doctor's office or in an eyeglass shop. Take notes. If your optician permits it, take pictures of yourself in styles that you particularly like.

3. Visit other optician offices, large retail chains and small local stores to compare prices and options. Snap shots of yourself in styles that you particularly like.

4. Look up online eyeglass retailers like 39 Dollar Glasses, Frames Direct, Zenni Optical, Goggles4U and Eye Buy Direct. Compare the prices and styles available with what you saw at retailers locally.

5. Upload your picture to virtually try on eyeglass styles you like at retailers' websites.

6. Choose the five eyeglass styles you like the best and get a second opinion from a friend or family member whose opinion you trust.

7. Choose a frame that you like that falls within your price limit. On some websites you can search eyeglass styles by price, and most opticians and retailers will help you find glasses within your price range upon request.

8. Order the glasses from the retailer of your choice. When they come in, be sure to try them on to make sure they fit correctly, and have adjustments made at a local optician's office.

Tips & Warnings

• Buying glasses locally can be advantageous for customers who want a warranty and a local place to take their glasses for repairs.

• Buying glasses online can be significantly less expensive, but you must have your exact prescription information, as well as exact measurements, such as the distance between the center of your pupils. Get this measurement with a clear ruler, by looking in the mirror and measuring the distance between the center of your pupils. .

• Don't buy glasses you don't feel comfortable wearing.

• Don't buy glasses that don't mesh well with your personal style just because they are inexpensive - you won't wear them. It's better to spend a little more for something you'll like wearing - buying glasses you don't like and won't wear is a waste of money.

• Different styles work for different people. Just because some celebrity is wearing black paste glasses, doesn't mean that style frame will work on your face. If you have trouble deciding what flatters you, bring a friend or someone who will tell you straight.

References

• Cosmopolitan Magazine: New Style Trend: Glasses on Guy Celebs: Zoe Ruderman; December 2009
• GQ Magazine: Get Framed! A GQ Guide to Glasses: Wear it Now; March 2010
• In Style Magazine: The Look; Glasses
• New York TImes: Start Up Has Vision to Sell Eyeglasses Online: Claire Cain Miller; January 2011
• The Wall Street Journal: Searching for Inexpensive Eyeglasses; Charles Passy; July 2009
• Slate.com: How to Get An Unbelievable, Thrilling Deal on New Glasses; Farhad Manjoo; April 2008