If you’ve been prescribed to wear eyeglasses, then it’s time for you to take a hike to your nearest optical store or visit online optical shops. Once you are in these locations, online or offline, you will be confronted with the problem of choosing the best eyeglass frames because there are numerous styles, colors, designs, and brands to choose from. Before the dawn of plastic eye-glass frames, eyeglasses have mostly thin metal frames and circular lenses which were trendy perhaps during the 19th or 20th centuries.
Frames can either be made of plastic or metal, with varied colors, shapes, and temple design. Of all these types, plastic frames are the most widely selected and highly praised by a lot of eyeglass wearers for different reasons.
There are a lot of reasons why people choose plastic frames over metal ones. These include:
- Lightweight. This advantage is pretty obvious. Eyeglass frames made of plastic are more lightweight than frames that are made of metal. Although lighter metals are now being used to produce lighter metal frames, the plastic industry does not lag behind in using more lightweight materials to create lighter plastic eyeglass frames.
- Color Options. Using metal frames, most users would have very limited choices because metal cannot be colored and if they were, their colors tend to fade faster than plastic eyeglass frames. Plastic frames in a wide variety of colors and in different hues too! For instance, blue eyeglass frames are available in dark blue, light blue, electric blue, aquamarine, and other shades.
- Durability. Metal is sturdier than plastic but with eye-glass frames, you need something more than just sturdy. Eyeglasses are removed from the face and put back on multiple times a day. It is put inside bags, pockets, table top counters and even under pillows. Your eyeglass frame should be able to withstand pressure, bending and constant handling and in most cases, metal frames cannot do that because metal frames tend to be too stiff that they easily break.
- Design options. Metal frames are not generic. Of course, there are other designs as well. However, aesthetics are pretty limited to metal frames because color options are limited as well. Colors can be combined with plastics to create more colorful eye-glass frames. Plastic can also be better reshaped than metal frames because plastic can be molded easily.
- Affordable. Plastic is practically cheaper than metal and this is a known fact. Metal, although sturdier, is obviously more expensive because of the materials used to fabricate the eyeglass frame.
The modern eyeglass market does offer a lot of options for its consumers. There are eyeglass frames that use both plastic and metal. The basic types of eyeglasses create more combinations with glass lenses and other eyeglass features. You’re very lucky because you live in an era when fashion does not have to be sacrificed with function. You can be correct your vision and at the same time be trendy and fashionable with your chosen eyeglass frame.