One of the most common things people who wear glasses complain about when using headphones is that wearing them together gets uncomfortable. If you have the same problem, you need to read this page. It will teach you how to wear headphones with glasses.
Problems headphones cause after wearing them for a while
Mostly, people feel uncomfortable, pained even, wearing headphones after a while of using them. Why do headphones do that?
1-The shape of the headphones is unsuitable for you.
Headphones are not custom fitted. So, they may be tiring to your head or ears. They might feel annoying and their clamping pressure might feel too tight.
Solution: when it comes to headphones, try before you buy.
2-They might cause static electric shocks to your skin.
In dry weather, human skin can build static electricity. Moreover, the synthetic materials people’s clothes are made of and the ones headphones are made to increase the static charge.
Solution: wear clothes made of shock-absorbing and moisturize your skin and rub it to reduce electricity buildup.
3-You get tired and exhausted after a while of using headphones
When loud sound waves are focused on your ears, your eardrums have a lot of work to do accumulating these waves. This causes the listener’s fatigue symptomized by exhaustion.
Solution: do not wear headphones all the time and be reasonable with volume levels.
4-Your ears hurt when wearing headphones while wearing glasses.
The pressure of the clamping force of the headphones on your ears along with that of the frame of the glasses might be too much for your ears.
Solution: buy a more comfortable headset and glasses with a thin frame.
5- Your ears feel sweaty and hot.
You feel like your ears are really sweaty and that you need to air them from time to time. Most likely the ear pads of your headphones are leather that doesn’t let air in or sweat out.
Solution: choose headphones with ear pads made of and covered with a breathable material such as velour.
Wearing specs can be, though necessary, uncomfortable for some people. Wearing specs with headphones for a long time can be even more tiring. It results in certain problems.
Problems people with glasses face when wearing headphones:
Compression Headache:
Headphones with a lot of clamping force can put pressure on temples. Pressuring any area in the human body is damaging, much less the skull. So, compression headache happens and gets worse the longer you wear headphones.
Outer ear pains
Chondrodermatitis nodularis helicis is the scientific term for sore ear cartilage which can happen when wearing both glasses and headphones for a long time. It is symptomized by inflammation, tenderness, redness, and pain in the skin of the outer ear.
Feeling uncharacteristically uncomfortable
That feeling can be caused by different things: the pressure force of the headphones, the design, thickness, and shape of the glasses’ frame, the type of the headset, and how thick is the padding of the headphones.
Knowing what the problem with your headphones in, is halfway to knowing how to wear headphones with glasses comfortably.
Read also: CVC Noise Cancellation
So, how to wear headphones with glasses without facing pains or problems?
Here is some advice that can help with that.
- Change how you place your headphones:
It’s not like there’s a law for how you wear your headphones. You don’t have to stick to the conventional way of wearing the headset while wearing glasses. You can push the headphones back or place them so the head-arch is behind your neck.
- Get thin-framed glasses.
Feeling like your ears are doing some heavy lifting is enough trouble sans wearing a headset. Your glasses should be light and thin-framed so they wouldn’t dig into your temples or your ear cartilage.
- Stretch your headphones out a bit.
With how much pressure some headphones apply to your head, you feel like your brain is the contents of a too-small clamshell.
Try stretching out your headphones’ sides. Put something in between, such as books, to prevent them from getting back to their former squeezing pressure.
Some people have tried tying headphones to a wire hanger. See what suits you.
- Make do with tissue paper.
You can ease some of the discomfort you feel when using headphones while wearing glasses if you wrap tissue paper around the temples of your glasses.
You can also fold a square of tissue paper and place it above your ear and under the glasses’ temples.
- Get headphones with soft ear pads or replace the ear-pads you already have.
Ear pads are different in material. Sometimes the outer material is fabric while the filling one is foam. Sometimes the inside is sponge while the outside is leather.
Manufacturers try to compromise between comfort and durability and sometimes it isn’t in your favor.
Try to feel the ear pads before buying the headphones to get ones that give while you wear glasses instead of digging into your head and ears.
- Adjust your glasses
Try changing the positioning of your specs. Place them higher or lower a bit. However, be careful. Don’t place them too close to your eyes. Don’t damage your eyes to relieve your ears.
- Buy headphones specifically manufactured for glasses’ wearers
There are actually headphones that are manufactured specifically for the bespectacled. They are tested in terms of ear padding, clamping force, weight, size…etc.
Thankfully, technology has made ear padding very comfortable with the invention of memory foam gel cushioning power. Glasses’ wearers are advised to try ear pads manufactured with this material.
Conclusion
Glasses’ wearers should not feel any discomfort when using headphones because both headphones and glasses are necessary. Getting things done while trying to ignore the pain when wearing them together would be difficult.