How to Wear Headphones with Glasses

What’s the thing most bespectacled people complain of when it comes to headsets? Headphone pain when wearing glasses.

Some even complain of headaches triggered by headphones. If your job requires that you wear headphones — maybe you’re a DJ or a professional gamer — or you just love music, you may be wondering how to wear glasses with over the ear headphones.

Today, we’re telling you how to go about it and how to choose the best headphone style for glasses.

Let’s commence.

The Main Discomforts of People with Glasses when Wearing Over-Ear Headphones

1.   Headaches

If headphones fit very tightly, they put a lot of pressure on the temporal bone of the skull, stimulating the cutaneous nerves and causing a headache. This is a pretty common headphone pain when wearing glasses.

This type of headache is called a compression headache and starts within an hour of wearing the headphones. It feels like moderate pain with intense pressure. The most pain is felt on the part of the head that is under pressure. The longer you wear the headphones, the more the pain tends to increase.

2.   Sore Ear Cartilage/Auricular Chondritis

One thing to remember about comfortable headphones for people with glasses is that you don’t want them to cause Auricular Chondritis. Auricular Chondritis is a condition where the ear’s cartilage is inflamed. It causes the ear to swell, turn red, and feel painful. One of its causes is pressure to the ear and the main symptom is pain in the outer ear.

Headsets can cause ear pain, even when the eardrum is not irritated. Soreness in the vicinity of the ear, like on the sides of the head, can result in referred ear pain. Additionally, when you wear headphones and glasses, there’s joint pressure on your ears, and this can make your earlobes sore.

3.   Overall Discomfort and Pain

Headphone pain when wearing glasses may be caused by the following reasons:

• The design of the glasses you wear.
• The type of headphones. There are four different types of headphones: over-ear, in-ear, on-ear, and earbuds.
• The materials used for the ear padding, and also its thickness.
• The clamping pressure of the headset.

The truth is, the human ear is unique to each individual. Because of this, there aren’t any headphones that cater to everyone’s needs (one size fits all). But there are still plenty of comfortable headphones for people with glasses to choose from.

7 Tips to Wear Headphones and Glasses in a Comfortable Way

If you follow these tips, you’ll know how to wear glasses with over ear headphones.

1.    Wear Glasses with Thinner Frames

When you wear glasses with thin frames, the surface area pressed against your scalp is smaller, which means the pressure on the ear cartilage and temporal bone is not a lot.

Frames with thick plastic temples lower the comfort significantly as the headphones push down on your ears, pressing the temples against the ears. While this pain may not be unbearable at first, you become uncomfortable very quickly than if you weren’t wearing glasses.

If you are a headphone user and don’t want to experience headphone pain when wearing glasses, buy glasses with thin frames. And remember, the thinner the frames, the better!

2.    Adjust Your Headset to Be More Loose

You will be hard pressed to find headphones that are specially designed for people who wear glasses. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to find comfortable headphones for people with glasses. One of them is adjusting your headphones to reduce the clamping pressure. If the clamping force of your current headphones is too strong, stretch them out.

Get some books and arrange them side by side until they are approximately the width of your head. Whenever you’re not using your headphones, place them over this devised stretcher. They will start feeling more comfortable after some days. However, you must be careful not to overstretch them or break them. You can start with a small stack of books and increase them gradually.

If your headset has metal bands, you can bend them slowly by hand. But make sure you don’t bend them too much or they will not be able to get back to their initial shape. Or, you can wear adjustable headphones like SoundSurge 46 that have great adjustable headbands.

This might be one of the easiest ways to wear glasses with over ear headphones.

3.    Reposition Your Headset to a More Comfortable Spot

If the above solutions aren’t suitable for you and you still experience headphone pain when wearing glasses, or you’d like more suggestions on how to wear glasses with over the ear headphones, you can consider changing the position of the headset. Your headphones don’t have a predetermined position that you can’t adjust.

Adjust them so that the earpiece cushions do not rest on top of your ears. This is easier to do for headsets with large earpieces. Try changing the positioning of your headphones by moving them forwards or upwards little by little till you find the most comfortable fit.

4.    Slide a Piece of Tissue between Your Frames and Your Head

If your glasses’ temples dig into your head when you’re wearing headphones, this is an unconventional solution you can try. Take two pieces of tissue and fold them to the smallest size. The folded pieces should be tiny. Put each piece between the temple and your head. They will act as a buffer and allow you to wear headphones as long as you want.

Though, fashion wise, you might feel better by simply buying the best headphone style for glasses.

5.    Lift Up the Temples of Your Glasses

If you’re not too concerned about your appearance, and this doesn’t affect your eyesight, lift up the temples of your glasses above the headphones. This should be the order: your ears, then over-the-ear headphones, then your glasses.

However, it is important to note that adjusting the pantoscopic tilt of your glasses a lot may cause anomalies in your vision.

6.    Choose Headphones with Thicker Ear Padding

Headphone manufacturers use different types of materials for the ear cushion padding. The materials, as well as the usefulness of the ear cushion padding, usually determine comfortable headphones for people with glasses.

Headphone ear cushions are usually made from one of these four materials: pleather, leather, foam, or velour. Ear cushions made from the first two materials normally have harder cushioning compared to those made from foam and velour.

But to be very honest, oftentimes, the material used to make the ear cushion, and its thickness, are usually a compromise between sound quality and comfortability. If you find that the padding is too thin or the material is not ideal for you, it could be there’s less cushioning to buffer the clamping pressure and the force exerted on your ear cartilage and temporal bone is more intense.

Each headphone user has a specific material they prefer for the ear cushion, as well as the preferred thickness. Some people prefer gel-infused memory foam while others don’t — because it adds extra weight to the headphones. Either way, these are one of the best headphone style for glasses.

7.    Choose Headphones that Work with Glasses

If you’re truly determined to steer clear of headphone pain when wearing glasses, you have to find the best headphones for bespectacled users like yourself. They should be comfortable to wear for an extended period of time, which means everything should be perfect — from the clamping force to the fit of the earcups.

The headphones should also sound as good as they feel; they should not sacrifice sound for comfort. No features found in modern headphones should be lacking, like a great battery life and on-headset controls.

Lastly, the headphones should be easy to use and not have many wires that may end up tangling in your glass frames. Getting high-quality wireless headphones with great sound and a built-in microphone is a dream come true for any person who wears eyeglasses.

Which is the Best Headphone Type for People Who Wear Glasses?

The million dollar question is, are there comfortable headphones for people with glasses? The answer is simple: Yes.

We love TaoTronics True Wireless Headphones as their ear cushions are soft enough to accommodate the temples of glasses. But we recommend that you wear glasses with thin temples so that the earcup seal will not be affected.

TaoTronics True Wireless Headphones have an over-ear design for maximum noise isolation and are ideal for people who want excellent sound. They let you focus on what you’re listening to, and you can search through the wide range to find the best headphone style for your glasses.

The over-ear headphones are some of the most comfortable for people with glasses. They are not heavy and can be worn for extended periods of time. The headband and earcups are well-cushioned and you can easily adjust the headband for a perfect fit. The earcups have large openings and you’ll have no trouble fitting your ears into them.

TaoTronics True Wireless Headphones have a long battery life (up to 25 hours), which means you can enjoy listening to audio files for longer. The sound is great and strikes a balance between bass, treble, and midtones.

Conclusions

Choosing the best headphone style for glasses is not easy because there aren’t many headphones that are made for people who wear glasses. Some bespectacled people avoid headphones because they experience discomfort, headaches, and even pain every time they wear them — thanks to ill-fitting earcups, cushioning that’s too stiff, and headbands that clamp too hard.

But the truth is there are some headphones you can wear and enjoy wearing. They perfectly balance comfort, sound quality, and utility. If you’ve tried a couple of headphones without success and you’re about to give up, try TaoTronics True Wireless Headphones as they don’t interfere with glasses in any way. They offer a high level of comfort and address the needs of eyeglass users.

Now you know how to wear glasses with over ear headphones, you’ll want to check out comfortable headphones for people with glasses. The best place to start looking for the best headphone style for your glasses? The TaoTronics Wireless headphones range!