Pollen Sunglasses

Hi all,

I have spring pollen allergies - only a couple (oak and birch pollen) and fortunately my only symptom is itchy eyes. While I’m very fortunate to not suffer from the typical respiratory symptoms (for the most part), the eye issue can be nearly debilitating at times.

If you made it this far, you’re wondering why I tagged this under equipment. The best prevention for my itchy eyes is keeping pollen out of them. I’m wondering if anyone has sunglasses recommendations I might consider? I’ve looked at mountaineering glasses (e.g. Oakley Clifden or Sunski Treeline) but I’m not sure how they’d do with fogging up. Any ideas? Thank you!

I personally don’t find that ride time is the worst time for me with getting itchy eyes, rather it is just around my house and I use Alaway eye drops 2x daily to stay sane. However, just some fairly close fitting oakleys with rims like the racing jacket (i’ve got some slightly older discontinued model) i know keep a fair amount of pollen out. At least judging by my facing being completely yellow in pine pollen season except for where my glasses are. I can’t imagine mountaineering glasses working while riding without insane fogging.

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First… these types of eye drops are the shizzy . Each brand has the same stuff in them, but the viscosity of the drops are quite a bit different. I like the orange one the best, but the Bausch ones are cheaper per drop and come in a 2-pack. The prices move around quite a bit, so find two brands. You’re probably also shooting gunk out of your tear ducts at your lenses when you sneeze, so the eye drops are the way to go.

Your eyes itch because the tear ducts are connected to your sinuses. The tear ducts get clogged up and your eyes get irritated.
Any cycling glasses are going to be full-coverage safety classes. If your eyes are runny, any additional coverage will just seal in the tears, and you’ll be a mess inside the lens. On the cheap, you can try cheap safety glasses. In any case, your eyes aren’t itchy because pollen is hitting your eyes.

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Those zaditor ones are the real deal, I keep them on hand this time of year.

I wear hard contact lenses and have huge problems with dust in my eyes. I found a cheap pair of noname shades that have a bit of foam that blocks a lot of it.
If I could find some more sunglass like goggles, I would wear them.
I’m just not gonna go all downhill with full goggles on road, CX and XC rides.