How To Play Airsoft With Glasses: The Complete Guide

Playing airsoft with glasses can be a bit complex since you should already wear eye gear when playing. However, with the right tools, you can play airsoft while wearing your glasses without any issues. 

Here are a few ways you can play airsoft with glasses:

1. Wear an airsoft face mask.
2. Wear airsoft goggles.
3. Wear an airsoft safety eye mesh.
4. Wear airsoft prescription goggles.
5. Wear eye inserts or contact lenses.

Understanding each of these will help you make an informed choice as to how to play airsoft with glasses. Keep reading to learn more. 

Gear that will be useful to you and is mentioned throughout the article:

Playing Airsoft With Glasses

There are two primary approaches when you have to wear prescription glasses and want to play airsoft. 

The short-term solutions include airsoft face masks, goggles, and safety eye mesh, which you can easily get ahold of and purchase. While they may seem a bit similar, they aren’t the same, as they can offer different experiences to users. 

On the other hand, the long-term solution requires getting prescription goggles from qualified medical practitioners, which are expensive, and you’ll need to wait for some time before you can play. 

Now let’s go over the following ways you can play airsoft with glasses.

1. Wear an Airsoft Face Mask

Full face masks are quite similar to airsoft goggles, but unlike goggles, they tend to cover the entirety of the face. As such, they protect not only the eyes but also other parts of the face, even reaching to the ears. 

Although airsoft BBs are more dangerous when they hit the eye, they can do some damage to other parts of the face, such as the ears, or even cause blistered lips. But with face masks, you’re largely covered. 

Face masks are designed to accommodate your prescription glasses adequately, often without the need for additional gear.  However, they also offer much less flexibility and are generally more expensive. 

Drawbacks of Face Masks

Here are some other downsides to using the face mask:

Face Masks Have Ventilation Problems

The face mask completely covers your entire face, including your nose and mouth, making it difficult to breathe comfortably. 

Although there are ventilation holes in the mask’s mesh, you often discover that these aren’t sufficient when you’re in the middle of the game, with all the running around you have to do when having fun. Nevertheless, plastic face masks tend to enable better passage of air than steel ones. 

Face Masks Are Heavy

A face mask is a combination of glasses on the eye and a mesh to cover the rest of the face. This collection of parts makes the face mask generally much heavier than goggles and eye mesh. You really don’t want to be slowed down by some extra weight on your face.  

Face Masks Cause Fogging

Although goggles tend to cause fogging as well, the situation is much worse with masks. This is mainly because they don’t allow smooth ventilation, and so, a lot of air gets trapped in your face, making its way to the eyes, bringing about poor vision. 

What To Look Out for When Choosing an Airsoft Face Mask

Given the drawbacks outlined above, here’s a list of features that your choice of an airsoft face mask must have:

Lots of Room To Breathe

It’s not comfortable to breathe heavily under your airsoft mask as it’ll interfere with the quality and fun of your game. The holes in the mask’s mesh should be large enough to create an adequate supply of air. However, they shouldn’t be too large so as not to allow BB pieces to penetrate and avoid harming your face. 

Sufficient Protection for the Eyes

An airsoft mask’s eye protection can be either in the form of glasses or a mesh over the eyes. No matter your choice, the material must withstand even ricocheting pellets without caving in or breaking. 

Moreover, consider how flexible and adjustable the mask is. Weight may also be a factor for you.

I recommend the Dye Precision I4 Thermal Paintball Goggle (available on Amazon.com), which features industry-leading thermal lens and excellent field of vision with distortion-free clarity. 

2. Wear Airsoft Goggles

Airsoft goggles are by far the most popular in terms of short-term solutions. Although they come in different shapes and types, I recommend OTG (over the glasses) goggles simply because they can adequately cover your prescription glasses. 

The glasses on most goggles usually have ballistic protection, which means it’s extremely difficult for pellets or BBs to have any effects on them. In essence, they’re shatter-proof.

Airsoft goggles are often heavier than the eye mesh but weigh much less than masks. One significant downside of goggles, though, is that they can be susceptible to fogging.

What To Look Out for When Choosing an OTG Airsoft Goggle

There are a few factors to consider when deciding to get an over the glass airsoft goggle. These include:

Safety Ratings

Military-grade spectacles, which most airsoft goggles are, have grades that indicate how safe they are. There are different safety ratings for different grades of weapons, but for airsoft, I recommend the military-grade MIL-PRF-31013.

Anti-Fog Feature

Fogging can affect your game quality and even endanger others. Most modern airsoft goggles come with anti-fog properties. One that comes highly recommended is the Eye Safety Systems Land Ops Goggles on Amazon.com. These high-performance anti-fog goggles are authorized by the US army to be worn over prescription glasses. 

Advanced Technology

Airsoft goggles shouldn’t be mere coverings that you put on your face to prevent pellet damage. They should be fitted with advanced technical capabilities that’ll enhance your game. For instance, your goggles should have ultraviolet sensors that’ll protect your eyes against excessive sunlight. 

3. Wear Airsoft Safety Eye Mesh

There’s one more variation of airsoft eyewear known as the airsoft eye mesh, which is usually made of tough plastic material with plenty of tiny holes connected through zig-zags.

This type of eyewear doesn’t come with lenses, but the holes are small enough to prevent any BBs from coming through. The absence of a lens makes this mesh an excellent alternative to the full-scale airsoft goggles because there’s lots of ventilation and, therefore, no problems with fogging. 

Moreover, since it doesn’t come with many parts, it’s lightweight and thus super affordable.

However, there’s one significant downside: eye mesh isn’t as safe as the other options listed here. For one, it has the potential to break as it’s made of plastic, and not all plastic material can hold well against ricocheting pellets. 

If that happens, broken pieces of BBs can get through, hitting your glasses and possibly making their way to your delicate eye sockets. You also don’t get protection against other things such as particles and dust.

One of the best airsoft eye mesh you can find is this A-Parts Actical Airsoft Goggles (available on Amazon.com). The mesh is made of steel wire and comes with an adjustable strap to give you the best fit.

4. Wear Airsoft Prescription Goggles

Instead of wearing your prescription glasses under a pair of airsoft goggles, you can opt for prescription goggles. This way, you won’t have to wear your everyday glasses when playing airsoft.

There are general prescription goggles that you can get without the need to consult a specialist. However, it is better to get one that’s custom-set for your eyes, as it would be more comfortable and safer for you.

This may warrant you enlisting the services of an eye specialist, but the longer-term benefits are ample. So, while they’re expensive, they’re worth it, especially if you plan to play airsoft for a long time. 

5. Wear Eye Inserts or Contact Lenses

Another option for playing airsoft with prescription eyewear is to use contact lenses. Rather than using external glasses, you insert the glasses into your eyes. Apart from playing airsoft, this may be good for you as it relieves you of glass usage, which can sometimes be strenuous.

Protecting Your Eyes When Playing Airsoft

Playing airsoft is entertaining, but it can also have some downsides, especially if you don’t take the necessary precautions. There are real risks both on and off the shooting arena.

The best way to protect your eyes during an airsoft game is to put on protective eye gear, and the most popular are goggles. 

Why You Should Put On Protective Goggles During Airsoft Games

Goggles give you protection and other advanced capabilities when you use them during an airsoft game. The benefits they offer include:

Protection

This may appear obvious, yet many airsoft players, especially beginners, don’t wear goggles while playing. This is mainly because they aren’t aware of the potential harm posed to their eyes during an airsoft game. 

Newer airsoft guns are fitted with higher performance capabilities which means they can aim at longer distances with higher intensity than ever.

Also, many of these guns are automatic: they fire multiple pellets with just one pull of the trigger. Similarly, the airsoft pellets and BBs are increasingly made of stronger materials. 

Hyphema is a common condition among airsoft players. It refers to the concentration of blood in the anterior chamber of the eye. Airsoft pellets may result in significant damage to your eyes. Potential long-term effects of hyphema include chronic glaucoma.

Another potential complication is a corneal abrasion, which is a scratch on the cornea or the protective window at the entrance of your eye.

However, with a quality protective goggle, you can avoid all these hazards and enjoy your game.

Advanced Capabilities

Airsoft goggles are no longer for protection alone anymore. They now come with advanced capabilities and new technology that make it easier to enjoy playing.

For one, there are different types of sensors that read the environment around you and make relevant changes. When playing airsoft, the lighting in the playing area can affect your vision, making it a bit difficult to enjoy your game. 

Light sensors on airsoft goggles can scan the lighting and make adjustments to improve your vision. If the lighting outside is low, the goggles enhance your vision. If it’s too bright, it helps moderate your sight. 

Moreover, some goggles are now equipped with anti-fog technology so that your vision doesn’t get blurry during play. 

Airsoft Goggles vs. Prescription Glasses

Things might get a little bit tricky if you need to wear prescription glasses. That’s because you can’t use your prescription glasses instead of airsoft goggles. 

So, how can you play airsoft with glasses? Can you even use your prescription glasses to play airsoft?

Let’s go over these questions and look at potential solutions. 

Can I Play Airsoft With Prescription Eyeglasses?

You should never go to an Airsoft game or stay near a shooting range with just your prescription glasses. In fact, putting on your prescription glasses can put you at some more risk than if you didn’t put on anything at all.

This is because a misfired pellet or BB can make its way to your eyes and break the lenses of the glasses into pieces right on your face. There is the chance that it sends these pieces flying into the delicate parts of the eyes, causing varying degrees of damage.

Can I Play Airsoft With Regular Safety Eyeglasses?

You should not play airsoft wearing regular safety glasses that protect against gaseous chemicals, the sun, or lightning without any anti-pellet protection. These glasses aren’t strong enough to withstand the intensity and strength of some Airsoft pellets and break easily. Instead, wear ballistic-grade protection.

How to Keep Your Airsoft Goggles from Fogging

Even if they are equipped with anti-fog properties, no airsoft goggles are immune to fogging. The tips you can apply to prevent fogging include:

• Get goggle fans attached to your goggles, or get a pair of goggles that comes pre-attached with a goggle fan. The 509 Anti-fog Goggle Fan on Amazon.com does the job well. 
• Sprays with anti-fog properties. Amongst several options, Optix 55 Anti-Fog Spray on Amazon.com comes highly recommended. 
• Anti-fog wipes such as the OptiPlus Lens Wipes on Amazon.com also have lasting fog-prevention effects. 
• Some Tricks: This might sound surprising, but some household products such as the toothpaste, shampoo and even the bath soap have anti-fog capabilities. However, these should only be for short-term uses. The above will give you longer-term anti-fog protection.

Final Thoughts

Airsoft can be a lot of fun. However, being a physical sport comes with many preventable risks, including potential harm to the eyes, which you must protect yourself against. 

As a prescription glass user, you have short-term and long-term options, which we have covered in detail here.