Masks and Specs and Beards and Shopping

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mrpercysnodgrass

Established Member
Joined
29 Apr 2012
Messages
863
Reaction score
243
Location
Lingen Herefordshire
I have been having a great deal of trouble with my specs steaming up when I go into shops, it became so bad one day in the supermarket I found myself doing that dreadful thing, pulling the mask below my nose! I now wear my GVS elipse half mask from my workshop which has eliminated the problem and it is comfortable to wear. The problem now is the GVS is awkward to get on and off, I have to take my specs off or run the risk of my specs flying off and breaking my very expensive lenses. So my question is............Has anyone here found a solution to wearing a face covering that will not steam glasses up? I should add that I have had the dreaded Covid and have antibodies so the face covering is not so much to protect me but to comply with the law.
I do not have a beard but I have a customer who is shielding and has a large beard. He asked me if there was a mask that he could use so that he could go out occasionally. So if there are any beardy blokes with advise that I could pass on to him I would appreciate it.
 
Add hearing aids to the list. I have a full beard, glasses, hearing aids and a pony tail.

I can usually flip at least one of the hearing aids off while removing the paper masks that fit behind the ears and occasionally while fitting. The danger is that someone stands on it while I am trying to find it or I don't notice and loose it. I have tried the ones with the elastic round the back of my head but they get the hearing aids and my hair.

I have tried one of the fabric masks with ear loops, I have a big head, stop sniggering at the back, and it appeared to be made for children and nearly pulled my ears off.

My half mask with the big filters on the front is no easier for fitting or taking off and having the valves at the side probably does little to protect others.

The paper masks won't go under my chin due to the beard so I look like an silly person which I probably do when not wearing a mask anyway.

Given all the above it is easier not to go out and when I get the mask on I try not to take it off until I am back home. So if you see someone looking stupid driving a car with one on it may be me.

I do not have a lot of problems with glasses steaming up but that will change when the weather gets colder. In the past I have successfully used the demisting products for glasses but that was some time ago when lenses were glass and I will have to try and find some again. I do not think the divers method of spitting in the face mask and wiping it around the glass will be socially acceptable as it would require the mask to be removed. The other method of wiping the mask with half a potato would just confirm people suspicions.
 
If you have a beard this is the only thing that will work properly

1599984581972.png
 
So my question is............Has anyone here found a solution to wearing a face covering that will not steam glasses up?

My main job for many years was a refrigeration engineer. A lot of the work entailed walking in and out of low temperature areas and glasses steamed up when we walked out of a cold store, for example. Washing-up liquid, 'Fairy' and the like, had just come on the market then... a slightly diluted bit of soap liquid smeared on the glass, back and front and allowed to dry solved the problem - no steaming up due to condensation.
 
Last edited:
This one!

Proper mask.jpg

It's hopeless for breathing and seeing, as well as beard-confining ..... but so scary that everyone runs off elsewhere so you can remove it.

You can also use it to peck with, a useful ability (just ask any seagull or parrot).

Eshmiel
 
I get spectacle steaming, generally hate the whole palaver but accept its necessary even if the benefit is marginal. I minimise my shopping these days. No unnecessary browsing.

Some practical things which help, but don't fully solve. One is to remove specs then fit mask then put specs back on a little further away from normal position. Seems to be better than just putting mask on and tucking under specs. Second is, in home made double layer masks, have a sewn in narrow horizontal sleeve at the top. Slide in a length of garden wire, take it out for washing mask. The wire is soft and when you put the mask on you simply push/bend it to fit your face closely so air doesn't exit upwards. Bit like the conformable strips in the disposable ones.

I've changed my attitude to delivery charges. Where I live it costs me about £3 in petrol etc to get to places like Screwfix, so why not pay them £5 to deliver. Fewer times I have to bother with masks.
 
What and waste £2, were not all made of 💷

Besides I'm Scottish 💃
 
Your GSv respirator has a valve therefore you are not providing any protection to others if you have the virus.
You might just as well go mask less.
please rethink your actions.
 
Your GSv respirator has a valve therefore you are not providing any protection to others if you have the virus.
You might just as well go mask less.
please rethink your actions.

Read his first post, he is immune.
 
@lurker I was going to write a long winded post which would probably get deleted anyway, but I am not going to bother, people like you aren't worth the effort.
 
@lurker I was going to write a long winded post which would probably get deleted anyway, but I am not going to bother, people like you aren't worth the effort.
Not only that, I just fall into the grouping of expendable members of society who are inconveniencing your current lifestyle. Even though my taxes were funding your furlough.
 
Not only that, I just fall into the grouping of expendable members of society who are inconveniencing your current lifestyle. Even though my taxes were funding your furlough.
We are all expendable, some more than others, but is sitting at home afraid to go, dancing, meeting friends or relatives or make new acquaintances , really living?
 
Back
Top