Discover the essential do's and don'ts of maintaining your optical frames and designer sunglasses. Learn the simple daily habits that preserve lens coatings, prevent misalignment, and extend the life of your eyewear investment, backed by 90+ years of optical expertise.
A Complete Guide to Eyewear Best Practices - For Optical Frames and Sunglasses
There is a certain kind of knowledge that only comes with time.
At S.R.Gopal Rao Opticians and Optometrists, we have spent over 90 years working with eyewear — not just curating beautiful optical frames and designer sunglasses, but understanding how they are built, how they age, and how everyday habits affect them.
A well-made pair of glasses can last beautifully for years. But even the finest frame can lose its shape, clarity, and comfort when it is handled carelessly. More often than not, the damage does not come from one big accident. It comes from small habits repeated every day.
Pushing them up on your head. Cleaning them with your shirt. Dropping them into a bag without a case. Leaving them on a car dashboard.
These are the things we see again and again.
So we decided to write this down — a simple, practical guide to caring for your eyewear the way it was meant to be cared for.
Optical Frames
Your optical frames are on your face for most of your waking hours. That daily usage means the right habits matter enormously, and the wrong ones compound quietly until the damage is already done.
What You Should Never Do :
Do Not Push Them Up on Your Head
Frames are engineered to fit your ears, not your head. Every time you push your glasses up, the temples splay, the fit loosens, and frames that once sat perfectly begin to slide and tilt. Not only this, but you also end up scratching the back surface of lenses because of the friction caused on the lenses by your hair or strands of it.
Do Not Leave Them Lens-Down on Any Surface
Every time your lenses make contact with a surface, you risk damaging the coating and the optical clarity you invested in. The damage is cumulative and invisible, until one day it is not.
Do Not Remove Them with One Hand
One-handed handling puts asymmetric stress on a single hinge every single time. It is one of the most common causes of misalignment we see, and one of the most avoidable.
Do Not Store Them in a Scattered Drawer
Keys, coins, and everything else in that drawer or bag are pressing against your frames every time it closes. If your frames do not have a dedicated case and a dedicated place, they do not have a home.
What You Should Always Do
Remove Them with Both Hands
Both hands on the frame, at the temples, every time. It takes two extra seconds and preserves the alignment of your frame indefinitely.
Rest Them Temples Down, Lenses Up
When you set your glasses down, always place them with the temples on the surface and the lenses facing upward. One small discipline that makes an enormous difference over the lifetime of a frame.
Case on the Bedside Table
Before you sleep, your frames go into their case. No exceptions. It takes five seconds and saves your frames from a hundred small accidents you will never even know happened.
If your optical frames need attention, our experts are here.
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Sunglasses
A great pair of sunglasses represents a significant investment, in craft, in materials, and in the brands we carry and stand behind. At S.R.Gopal Rao, we are custodians of some of the world's finest eyewear. We do not take that lightly, and neither should you.
What You Should Never Do
Do Not Hang Them Off Your Collar
Hanging your sunglasses off your collar stretches the frame, misaligns the hinges, and changes the fit over time. What feels like convenience is quietly doing structural damage that is very difficult to undo.
Do Not Clean Them with Your Shirt or Scarf
Every shirt fibre is abrasive against a lens coating. The micro-scratches are invisible at first, and then suddenly they are everywhere.
Do Not Spray Perfume or Cologne While Wearing Them
The alcohol in most fragrances is aggressive to lens coatings, UV protection, polarisation, anti-reflective layers - and to the acetate or material of the frame itself. The damage accumulates invisibly until it does not.
Do Not Drop Them in Your Bag with Keys and Sharp Objects
Your sunglasses and your keys should never share the same unprotected space. Every time you reach into that bag, your lenses take the hit. A case is not optional.
Do Not Leave Them on Your Car Dashboard
Leaving your sunglasses on the dashboard of your car might seem like the obvious choice, but your sunglasses will disagree. The heat warps the frame, degrades the lens coatings, and ruins the fit, sometimes permanently.
What You Should Always Do
On Your Face or In Your Case
If your sunglasses are not on your face, they should be in a case or pouch made specifically for eyewear. This ensures your sunglasses are loved in the way they deserve.
Always Use a Microfibre Cloth
Keep one with your sunglasses at all times. When your lenses need cleaning, use the cloth gently, in soft circles. Your lens coating will last for years with the right care and degrade within months without it.
Fragrance First, Sunglasses After
Make it a sequence, not a simultaneous act. Apply your perfume or cologne. Let it settle. Then put your sunglasses on. Your lenses will thank you. Your frame will too.
Store Them with Intention
Your sunglasses deserve a dedicated place. A case, on a shelf, in a space that is theirs alone. The difference between sunglasses that look brand new after five years and ones that look tired after one is almost entirely in storage.
If your sunglasses have already been through it, do not give up on them. We have been repairing and restoring eyewear for over a long time, and good eyewear is always worth saving.
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A Note from S.R.Gopal Rao
We have been doing this since 1936. In that time, we have seen eyewear evolve in extraordinary ways. But some things have not changed at all. The way a well-made frame responds to care. The way a poorly treated one shows its age. The difference between a pair of glasses that becomes a cherished object and one that becomes a replacement purchase.
At S.R.Gopal Rao, we are custodians of some of the world's finest eyewear brands. We carry them because we believe in what they stand for. And we believe that when you invest in something genuinely well made, you owe it the care that preserves that quality. These are not complicated habits. They take seconds. But over the lifetime of a frame, they are everything.
Your eyewear starts with your eyes.
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Already done the damage? Bring your frames in. Good eyewear is always worth saving.
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