There is a common concern that wearing a hairstyle with long or asymmetrical bangs can negatively affect your eyesight. We decided to check whether such concern was justified.

Many people write about the unpleasant consequences for vision that wearing bangs can lead to. Media: "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Sport Express", Life.ru, "Company secret" Concerned about potential danger users sites questions And answers, and also blogs And forums O parenthood And fashion. Websites dedicated to vision also warn against wearing bangs. True, some call it the most dangerous long bangs, and others - I slant. Allegedly, “due to long hair falling over the eyes, there is a deficiency of sunlight, leading to a lack of vitamins necessary for full vision,” and side-swept bangs are “about the same as wearing an eye patch. At some point – and it won’t take much time! “He will begin to see worse.” "Emo hairstyles ruin your eyesight" warns Colta.ru, and “Dni.ru” warn: “A fashionable haircut threatens to turn into blindness.” Also media claimwhat's wearing bangs leads to development amblyopia.

Amblyopia, or lazy eye syndrome, is decline visual acuity caused by insufficient functioning of the eye during development. In order for the visual system to develop correctly, the brain must receive the clearest, most focused and correctly combined image from both eyes. If the picture from one eye does not “fit” into the overall puzzle in terms of clarity or the details of the image do not match, then the brain begins to ignore the visual information coming from this eye. Amblyopia may arise due to strabismus, refractive errors (astigmatism, myopia or farsightedness) or visual axis obstruction (eg cataracts). This pathology susceptible 1% to 4% of all children, usually develops before the age of two years, but the risk of its occurrence remains until about seven to eight years.

If an ophthalmologist detects amblyopia in a child, then along with vision correction (glasses) prescribes wearing an occluder - a plastic, rubber or fabric seal that “turns off” the healthy eye and forces the lazy one to work for two, and the brain to process the information received from this particular eye. According to the latest clinical recommendations, usually the doctor prescribes wearing the occluder two hours a day, however, if there is no effect, the time can be increased to six hours. At the same time there is schemes treatments that require wearing this patch 24 hours a day. Average vision correction using an occluder takes several months, but in severe cases Maybe it will take several years.

Probably, it is with the occluder that those who fear that bangs can “turn off” one eye from work draw a parallel. In particular, it is this explained vision problems among young people Andrew Hogan, member of the Australian Association of Optometrists: “If an emo teenager (Hogan commented specifically on the hairstyles of representatives of this subculture. - Ed.) bangs covers one eye all the time, then that eye will not see much detail and over time will become lazy.” He gave this comment to the Australian publication The Telegraph in 2012. And although Hogan did not refer to any scientific data in his statement, his words were widely circulated - they immediately wrote about the connection between hairstyle and vision problems HuffPost, Independent, Fox News, Time And New York Post.

Andrew Hogan - ophthalmologist, occupied previously the director of Optometry Australia, however, no scientific work on amblyopia could be found in the largest medical research database PubMed. The only thing there is - Job his Canadian namesake about ways to treat amblyopia in cats. Are not located his research and in the Google Scholar database. Hogan probably did not express a scientifically based warning, but simply shared his unsubstantiated assumptions with the journalist.

Hogan's colleagues disagreed with his point of view. In particular, Dr. Leonard Press, an ophthalmologist and co-author of the American Optometric Association's clinical guidelines for the treatment of amblyopia, believes The idea that long bangs have an effect on vision problems is absurd. Firstly, for amblyopia to develop, bangs will have to be worn from a very early age, since after seven years the entire visual system is already fully formed and it is extremely difficult to change it (which is why treatment of children with amblyopia should never be delayed). Secondly, according to Press, for vision to be impaired, the bangs must be completely opaque and tightly cover the eye 24 hours a day for an extremely long time. The doctor believes that it is absolutely impossible to fulfill all these conditions, which means that such a hairstyle cannot harm the eyesight.

Similar position adhere to and specialists from the Virginia Vision Treatment Center in the USA. They point out that the occluder does not cause loss of vision in the healthy, temporarily disabled eye, but simply deprives the brain of signals from this eye in order to activate the lazy one. After the occluder treatment is stopped, the child sees perfectly in both eyes. In addition, wearing bangs like an occluder secured with a patch will not work - the hair will be blown away by the wind or a simple movement of the head. It is impossible to fix both the head and the hairstyle so that the eye is completely closed for several hours every day for several months without conscious effort. Therefore, even bangs covering one eye will not affect vision in any way.

Dr. Lil Linton, former president of the Canadian Optometrists Association, also believes a far-fetched problem: “This could happen if we were talking about a very small child whose hair was constantly blocking one eye. In this case, the eye would have to be completely closed and receive absolutely no visual stimulation either day or night.” In her opinion, the most vulnerable age for the development of amblyopia is up to three years; after six years, vision has already developed so much that the chance of pathology appearing is insignificant, and if it develops, it will definitely not be because of the hairstyle.

Gary Heiting, ophthalmologist and vision expert, in an article for the scientific and educational resource All About Vision writesthat the fear that bangs can somehow affect vision is nothing more than a myth. For any consequences to occur, three unlikely factors must occur: firstly, the visual system must be in the formative stage, secondly, the bangs must completely deprive the child of vision in one eye, and thirdly, the effect must last throughout the entire waking period.

Thus, you should not be afraid of either too long or asymmetrical bangs - such hairstyles will not harm your eyesight in any way, especially if you have already left preschool age. Amblyopia, or lazy eye syndrome, develops in childhood and only due to concomitant visual impairment, and is also highly treatable.

Cover image: TRESemme