Loving my eyes with Polaroid

When you drive or walking around town as often as we do, you really need to take care of that glare from the sunlight that hits your eyes. And you know, we are so fastidious about applying sunblock and protecting our skin from the sunrays, why not our eyes too?

Pick Polaroids for optimum eye protection

How often do you shield your eyes when going about your outdoor activities.. ?

UV Rays in KL are strongest when walking around town at mid-day.. do you protect your eyes? 

And being a swimmer and long distance runner myself, training really almost inevitably occurs outdoors, and for extended periods of time. One of the best ways to protect my eyes from the sun’s damaging rays are by using my Polaroid’s, at all times, when training outdoors. This will help to prevent the progression of cataracts in old age. A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens of your eye. For people who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is a bit like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window.

long distance running required training under the glare and harsh UV rays

Another thing to note about being directly under the hot sun, the glare will actually cause you to squint. And prolonged squinting can cause wrinkles and premature aging.

Swimming, running, biking.. are all sports that require squinting in the sunlight. Investing in a good pair of Polaroids will reduce squinting, premature aging of skin and wrinkles around the eyes.

Reading by the pool – do you protect your eyes or just your skin from harmful UV rays?

I never run in the mornings without my Polaroids. Even if you don’t realise it, you are squinting in the light

Doctors think there are several strategies of preventing cataracts and these include,

1. Having regular eye examinations. Eye examinations can help detect cataracts and other eye problems at their earliest stages. Ask your doctor how often you should have an eye examination.

2. Quit smoking. Ask your doctor for suggestions about how to stop smoking. Medications, counseling and other strategies are available to help you.

3. Wear sunglasses. Ultraviolet light from the sun may contribute to the development of cataracts. Wear sunglasses that block ultraviolet B (UVB) rays when you’re outdoors.

And trust me when I say, there’s a huge difference in selecting plain tinted glasses, or Polaroids. Some sunglasses just look good cosmetically, but they do not protect your eyes from UV. Tinted lenses only reduces the sunlight entering our cornea, and might not protect our eyes from all the harmful UV rays (UV-A/UV-B/UV-C). Some tinted lenses don’t even filter any of the UV rays.

Prolonged exposure to UV rays may risk us developing macular degeneration, cataracts on the cornea, photokeratitis/snow blindness, skin cancer of the eyelid, pterygium growth on the conjunctiva, collagen fibre damage, and will accelerate crow’s feet wrinkles around your eyes. Scary. So before grabbing a pair of sunglasses off the shelf because it adds to your swag, be sure to check with the optometrist on the level of protection offered.

The image on the left is an illustration of a vision without polarised lenses while on the right shows a clear view of the road ahead with polarised lenses.

Polarized lenses work by filtering out the reflection of light off a surface. The glare from the sun is usually reflected horizontally into your eyes impairing your vision. Polarized lenses corrects this with a special filter blocking out the horizontal rays giving you clear vision.

Glare is caused by sunlight reflecting off horizontal surfaces and entering our eyes. Glare increases on shinier surfaces 

How can you test if a pair of sunglasses are polarised? Find a reflective shiny surface, and hold the sunglasses so that you are viewing the surface through one of the lenses. Slowly rotate the glasses to a 90-degree angle, and observe if the reflective glare diminishes or increases. If the lenses are polarized, the glare will reduce significantly.

There are now many types of polarised lenses available on the market but there is a difference in the level of protection provided, shock absorption, durability, and the level of visual acuity (clearness, preciseness of vision). This quality is derived from the technology used to make the polarised lenses.

glare is significantly reduced via polaroid sunnies, without compromising on clarity 

Most of us, know of Polaroid as the classic instant camera maker, instead of being the pioneer of polarised lenses, which is equally ground breaking. Well, Polaroid eyewear is now in Malaysia, distributed by Safilo Group, another world leader in lens and optics technology. They aim to accessorize all of us with premium polarised eyewear which has helped many performance aviators, athletes especially in sea sports, and drivers perform better by cutting out the glare and harmful rays to excel further in their profession, and look cool while doing those things.

Polaroid begun commercially manufacturing polarised lenses in the late 1930s, allowing us to keep the glare out of our eyes whenever we go fishing, fly, walk, run, drive, or for the hipsters of today, to be fashionably worn at the dance clubs. The man behind the technology was one, Edwin Land, a Harvard progeny whom, after patenting the synthetic filter technology, started up Polaroid (portmanteau for Polarised Celulloid) company in the late 1920s. Instantly, Land’s invention changed the way the world sees and how visual images are captured on film. Fame and fortune was bestowed upon him and his offsprings, forever leading the way, donning Polaroid eyewear!

The Polaroid UltraSight premium polarized lenses 9 lenses created by the Thermofusion Technology hence a superior finish that is scratch resistant and will last longer.

Polaroid’s UltraSight polarised lenses claims glare-free vision, clear contrasts, natural colors, reduced eye fatigue, 100% UV400 protection, and a resists strongly to scratches. There are variety of Ultrasight lenses. There are 5 levels of filter strength on different colored lenses. Different tint colors and shades cut off different levels of glare interfering our vision besides dimming the harsh sunlight. Level 3 is not too dark, and really just perfect for driving.

Polaroid antique glasses.. just gorgeous! 

We currently own several pairs of polarised sunglasses, and we love them. When compared with UltraSight lenses, the Polaroid lenses provided better vision with less glare and clearer sight.

Polaroids are a great option that offer style as well as substance. If you have not already, we highly recommend you check them out for yourselves!