This is a common question being asked when customers visited us in our store. A must? Yes, of course.

Sunglasses are a great and inexpensive way to protect your eyes from the sun.  Especially during summer as well as in winter, proper sunglasses keep the UV rays from affecting your eyes and prevent problems such as cataracts.

The best sunglasses will protect against both UVA and UVB rays. Polarized lenses can help if you’re on the water a lot since they reduce glare.

How to Pick Good Sunglasses

Here’s tips for choosing shades that will protect your eyes from the sun’s harmful effects.

Sunglasses can give you instant Andy Lau cool, Robert Downey Jr  glamour, or the rock star hipness of Jay Chou. But they are much more than a fashion accessory.

Sunglasses are an essential tool in safeguarding the health of your eyes and the surrounding tissue.Here’s what you need to know about what sunglasses can do for you (apart from style) and how to choose them.

Eye on UV Risks UV radiation increases your odds of getting cataracts, which cloud the eye’s lens and lead to diminished eyesight. It has also been linked to macular degeneration, a treatable, but incurable disease of the macula, a part of the retina that is essential for sharp vision.Other UV-related eye problems are pterygium and pingueculum. A pterygium occurs when the conjunctiva, the tissue that lays over the white of the eye, grows into the cornea. A pingueculum is a yellowish bump of tissue on the white of the eye.Sunlight that bounces off highly reflective surfaces such as snow, water, sand, or pavement can be especially dangerous.Make Sunglasses your Daily Habit Like sunscreen, sunglasses should be worn whenever you’re outdoors, year round. Just as we’ve learned that you can get a really nasty sunburn on an overcast, hazy day, you’re exposing your eyes to damaging UV rays on these days, too.Sunglasses are especially important for children.“UV eye damage is cumulative over a lifetime”  it’s important to make wearing sunglasses a habit early in life. What’s more, children’s eyes are especially vulnerable because they’re still developing.”Protecting your eyes from the sun begins with picking the right pair of sunglasses.

A fews tips that you can watch out:-
- Look for Complete UVA/UVB ProtectionChoose sunglasses that provide full protection against ultraviolet light. Look for a label or a sticker that says one or more of the following:

• Lenses block 99% or 100% of UVB and UVA rays

• UV 400 protection. (These block light rays with wavelengths up to 400 nanometers, which means that your eyes are shielded from even the tiniest UV rays.)

Choose the Right Hue

The coating that blocks UV radiation is clear, so a darker lens isn’t necessarily more effective than a lighter one. But hue does play an important role in color perception.Yellow or rose tinted lenses can make it difficult to distinguish changes in traffic lights. Gray, green, and brown lenses minimize color distortion, and are a better choice when you’ll be behind the wheel.

Opt for Polarized Lenses If You Spend a Lot of Time on WaterPolarized lenses reduce glare by filtering out the reflected sunlight that bounces off surfaces like water or pavement. They’re a good option for boaters or water skiers, and they can cut down on glare from flat, smooth surfaces like road pavement or the hoods of cars.The downside: It can be difficult to read your cell phone, GPS device, or a liquid-crystal display on a dashboard or ATM machine with polarized lenses.Be aware that polarization has nothing to do with UV protection. So check the label to make sure the sunglasses provide full UV filtering