Sunglasses keep slipping down your nose? The three causes and the fix for each

Sunglasses slip down your nose for one of three reasons, and each has a different fix. If the frame is wider than your face, nothing is holding it and only a narrower frame helps. If the temple arms run straight back without curving behind the ears, an optician can bend them in a minute. If the bridge is the wrong shape for your nose, so the frame sits on the tip instead of the sides, stick-on silicone pads or an adjustable-pad frame fix it. Sweat and sunscreen make all three worse, and cleaning the pads helps more than people expect.

Cause 1: the frame is too wide

A frame is held on your face by three contacts: the two temples and the bridge. If the frame is wider than your head, the temples do not touch the sides, and the whole weight sits on the nose with nothing to stop it sliding.

Test: with the glasses on, gently push the temple arms inward. If there is a gap between the arms and the sides of your head before you push, the frame is too wide.

Fix: a narrower frame. Frame width, hinge to hinge, should be within about 10mm of your face width at the cheekbones. Our measurements post shows how to measure. An optician can narrow some plastic frames with heat, but a frame more than a size too big will keep slipping. Our T01 is 140mm across, which suits a face of roughly 130 to 150mm; on a narrower face it will slide, and we say so on the fit guide.

Cause 2: no grip behind the ears

The temple arms should curve down behind the ear and rest there, so the frame is held from the back as well as the sides. Arms that run straight back, or bend too far from the ear, give no hold.

Test: with the glasses on, look down at the floor. If they slide immediately, the arms are not holding.

Fix: an optician can heat and bend the arm tips to curve behind your ears. Most plastic and metal frames allow this. Rubber-tipped arms, or a pair of slip-on silicone temple grips, add friction. For sport, a retainer strap solves it outright.

Cause 3: the bridge does not fit your nose

Frames are designed around a nose bridge of a certain height and width. If yours is lower or narrower than the frame expects, the bridge does not sit on the sides of your nose; it perches on the top, where there is nothing to grip, and slides.

Test: the frame sits high and touches the nose only at one point, or the lenses sit against your cheeks.

Fix: stick-on silicone nose pads add a few millimetres of height and a lot of grip; they cost almost nothing and work on any frame. Frames with adjustable metal nose pads can be set for your nose by an optician. Some makers sell frames built for a lower bridge, with a deeper, wider nose piece.

Sweat, sunscreen and skin oil

Any of the three causes gets worse when the contact points are slippery. Sunscreen is the worst offender: it is designed not to wash off, and it coats the nose pads. Clean the pads and your nose with soap and water before a hot day. Our cleaning post covers the frame as well as the lens.

For sport in heat, wax-based grip products for the nose pads exist and work for a few hours. A retainer strap is the honest answer for anything strenuous.

What does not help

• Tightening the hinge screws. The screws set how stiff the hinge is, not how the frame sits on your face. If the arms flop, that is a different problem, and our loose sunglasses post fixes it.
• Bending the frame front. Plastic fronts crack; the front is not what holds the glasses on.
• Pushing them up all day. That is the symptom, not a fix.

Frequently asked questions