The lazy, hazy days of summer are well underway, and you’re doubtlessly spending plenty of time outside, soaking up the sun.
Whether you’re heading to a barbecue or lounging poolside, you want to look your best with a fashionable pair of sunglasses to accent your outfit. However, SIHT Optical advises customers that just because a pair of sunglasses looks great and matches your clothing perfectly doesn’t mean it provides the protection you need against harmful UV rays.
This is especially true during the summer, when the days are longer and the sun is brighter. Surprisingly, despite this fact, only 27% of adults wear sunglasses when they’re outdoors and, even more surprisingly, only 59% of parents make sure their children wear sunglasses.
If you don’t protect your eyes when you’re out in the sun, it can cause short-term effects such as pain, discomfort, and sunburn on your eyes, as well as leading to more long-term effects such as cataracts, macular degeneration, and even cancer of the eye!
Besides the obvious reasons for wearing sunglasses, such as being able to see better, SIHT Optical, the top provider of luxury eyewear in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, offers the top four reasons for wearing sunglasses during the summer:
- Preventing wrinkles: This is a no-brainer: when you squint, especially in bright sunlight, it causes the skin around your eyes to bunch, causing wrinkles.
- Avoiding skin cancer: While wearing sunscreen or a hat with a visor will help to keep the sun out of your eyes, a good pair of sunglasses with UV protection will also keep harmful rays off your eyelids and, in turn, prevent melanoma (skin cancer) from developing.
- UVA/UVB protection: When you’re outside during the summer, your exposed skin isn’t the only part of your body that’s bombarded with UVA and UVB rays from the sun. Exposure to these rays can lead to damage to your eyes, such as macular degeneration.
- Great accessories: It’s true that you should wear sunglasses for health reasons, but let’s face it; the right pair of shades is the perfect accessory for a trendy outfit.
Small lenses may be the trend, but if you’re looking for true protection from the sun, you should wear sunglasses that provide all-around protection and don’t allow any harmful rays in, such as wrap-around sunglasses.
You might be tempted to get a pair of off-the-rack sunglasses from a drugstore, but SIHT Optical advises against this. Often, these sunglasses won’t have the same level of UVA and UVB protection that higher-end sunglasses possess.
SIHT Optical advises its customers to follow these steps so that they’ll not only look great, but also protect their eyes and stay healthy.