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All day mask wearing? With glasses?

NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
in The potting shed
Just curious if anyone has to wear face coverings/masks for regular, extended periods of time like at work? With glasses? What mask do you time doesn't fit up and is comfortable all day long?

It's company policy to wear face mask or face shield. Not great for be glasses wearers. For many months I've been using masks bought from a garden centre. Since getting my last one from there I've been unable to find more, the GC sold out some time ago. The nose wire had broken so they mostly need to be replaced.

Any ideas?
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  • hatty123hatty123 Posts: 125
    The problem with glasses steaming up is when your breathe escapes up by your nose. So the key is to get a very well fitted mask that stops or reduces this. I don't have this problem myself as I normally wear contacts but colleagues have found the more expensive filtered masks intended for construction work are best. On the odd occasion when I've worn my glasses my fabric mask has been ok, but I made it myself and it fits very well over the nose.
  • BenjiBenji Posts: 10
    https://brilliantmasks.co.uk/products/the-alder-hey-adults-mask
    I bought a few different masks these when mask wearing went compulsory and these have turned out to be the best with glasses.  Really good long wire and fabric that doesn’t  gape.
    I am not affiliated to the seller in any way. So I’m not advertising.  
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I have made all our masks using patterns found online and 3 layers of cotton fabric.  The fabric shop started selling little metal bars about 9cm by 5mm that can be slotted in at top middle and which can be bent to fit over the nose.

    I only wear mine for a couple of hours at a time for the weekly shop but I need reading glasses to check my list, compare prices, check ingredients on a few things and the wee bar has made a huge difference to steaming up.




    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
    I've bought cheap ones and more expensive ones. Most have been a very good fit with the nose wire.  They simply do not always work.

    I got a cheap enough couple of masks from local GC that fitted very well. They worked brilliantly for a couple of weeks. Then I kept finding they needed fitting in a precise way or I'd fog up. Funnily enough the way to stop the fog was to have it kind of loose and ill fitting around the top.

    Still better than anything else so I ended up buying more. This time when I needed replacements they'd sold out. I've now bought a pair of Lee Cooper branded ones that had a bit more tech in them and a multi pack of cheap ones. All with nose wire. It surprised me how many expensive ones had no nose wire.

    My issue is they're on for 20 minute commute with 45 minute sitting around waiting for my train. Then at work I wear them on the shop floor. Never added up the hours I wear a mask for but it's a lot. I need a better one I think. However they're more expensive I reckon and how do you find out if they're any good. I've bought the nearly £20 each ones on recommendations only to snap the nose wire in less than a week. I guess its the on then off then on again thing through the day. Also stuffing in a pocket doesn't help.

    Did think of making my own but balked at the hand sewing,  no machine. Plus back then you couldn't get the nose wire and would have to improvise with garden wire or pipe cleaners. Work made some but nobody wears them, no good design.
  • NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
    At work a lot wear glasses based face shields. Some attach to your chin covering mouth and nose but only just. You can see plumes of breath escaping over the top. Useless but more comfortable for them. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2021
    OH wears face masks and a perspex face shield  all day. He is particular about the fit of the masks and adapts the disposable ones he wears by padding the nose bridge area with sticky foam strip ... these are the ones he wears
    https://ukmaskcompany.co.uk/product/kn95-mask/  
    He finds that in this way they don’t steam up glasses when he’s wearing them. 
    Face shields are not a substitute for masks. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
    Why a face shield alone may not protect you from coronavirus

    A quote from the title of that BBC article. It put me off reading it at first because it's not about face coverings protecting you but about protecting others. Of course later on it went along the right lines,  it's headline was just badly chosen. Pedantry perhaps. 

    I know those occupational face masks are better performing,  overall cheaper and fit better. It's just that they're at most reusable a highly limited number of times. They're almost as bad as one use masks that I'm trying to avoid. I prefer natural fibre but might consider synthetic if its good and has a long lifetime. I mostly use cotton where I can but my current favourites are synthetic and cotton I think. They have lasted in some cases from last year!! I know a lot good for 30, 40 or 50 washes but IME ignoring any surface treatment a good reusable lasts longer if the nose wire does. I have thrown ones that have been barely used when the nose wire goes. 

    I totally agree that face shields should always be used with a face mask. When you see a plume of condensation coming from nose or mouth that suddenly gets cut off at the shield edge.  Well that's a good proof they're not doing what is needed. 
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    It isnt only breath escaping from your nose that makes glasses steam up, if you try breathing through your mouth, same thing happens. When I was working (nursing) Osolation wards, the staff who wore glasses permanently, made sure their masks were high up just under your eyes, and yes,good firm fit. NorthernJo, if you have them loose over your nose, there is no point in wearing one, for the sake of other people. Hubby wears glasses all the time, hes got a small one, just goes overend of his nose and mouth, (its horrible likem the jaw of a scull) and has nicked my cycling one with fine perticulate filter, and his glasses dont steam up! Perhaps hes given up on breathing!!
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I wear glasses and have major problems with them steaming up, even with expensive masks with the wire bridge.  Pinching the wire in does help, but I have a broken nose and that definitely doesn't help the fit.  Because of the shape of the break I can't fit any mask under the glasses, they have to sit further down my nose.  I remove my mask the moment I don't have to wear it so taping isn't an option.  One of my masks does have a seperate, shape piece under the chin and I can pull that down to allow the air to vent through that space.  It may make the maks less effective but at least then I can see where I'm going.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2021
    @KT53 try sticking foam strip to either side of the 'bridge' like my OH does ... it just fills those gaps either side of the nose that pinching the wire doesn't quite do .. (he has a very bony nose but don't tell him I said that) :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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