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Do glasses make you look older?

Published October 17, 2026 · AgeDart

It's one of the most repeated beauty myths: put on glasses and you'll look years older. The number you usually see quoted comes from a survey, not from a published study. When researchers tested it under controlled conditions, the effect turned out to be small, and it even went the other way with sunglasses.

Where the “three years” comes from

The figure that travels around the internet, that people with glasses look about 3.3 years older and over-45s about five, comes from a 2010 survey by an eye clinic that sells laser surgery. It was never published in a scientific journal, and the people running it had an obvious interest in the answer.

What a controlled study found

In 2020, researchers took photos of 50 young adults, made digitally aged versions of the same faces and added either eyeglasses or sunglasses, so the only thing that changed was the eyewear. Young faces with eyeglasses were judged about 1.3 years older; for the aged faces, eyeglasses changed nothing. Sunglasses did nothing for the young faces and made the aged ones look about 1.8 years younger (Brunet and Sharp, 2020). The authors' conclusion: eyewear hardly changes how old we look.

The limits of that study

It was a small study: 21 young raters and glasses added with an app, the same generic frame for everyone. Real frames vary a lot, and real people choose them to suit their face. So the safe reading is not “glasses never matter”, but “glasses alone don't add the years the myth promises”.

What can make a difference

The area around the eyes is where faces show age first, so anything that hides it or draws attention to it matters more than the glasses themselves. Thick, dated frames, reading glasses perched on the nose and lenses with strong glare can push a guess up; a frame that suits your face and clean, non-reflective lenses usually go unnoticed. In photos, tilt the glasses or your head slightly to avoid reflections over the eyes.

And for your AgeDart selfie

Prescription glasses are fine: they're part of your face. Sunglasses aren't, because people need to see your eyes to guess your age. Curious whether your glasses change your number? Share your own link with friends and try a photo with and without them. For more on what changes the age people see, read how to guess someone's age and how to look younger in photos, or find out how old you look.