The first time you try to put a contact lens in your own eye, your body will fight you. Your eyelid will snap shut, your eye will water, and the lens will fold onto your fingertip. This is normal. Almost everyone struggles for the first three or four days, and almost everyone stops noticing it entirely by week two.

What follows is the process eye care professionals actually teach, in order, along with the parts beginners most often get wrong.

Before you touch a lens at all

Get an eye examination and a proper fitting first. This applies even if you want zero-power lenses purely to change your eye colour. A fitting measures the curvature and diameter of your cornea, and a lens that does not match those measurements will either grip too tightly and starve the eye of oxygen, or slide around and abrade the surface.

You also need to know two numbers before ordering: your base curve (usually 8.4 to 8.8mm) and diameter (usually 14.0 to 14.5mm). Your optometrist will give you both.

Setting up

• Wash your hands with plain soap and water. Skip moisturising or antibacterial soaps with added oils — the residue transfers straight onto the lens.
• Dry with a lint-free towel. Ordinary cotton towels shed fibres that stick to wet fingers and then to the lens.
• Work over a clean, flat surface, not an open sink. Everyone drops a lens eventually, and a plughole is unforgiving.
• Trim and file your nails, or at least be conscious of them. Most beginner corneal scratches come from fingernails, not lenses.
• Put lenses in before makeup, and take them out before removing makeup.
• Always start with the same eye every time. It sounds trivial, but it is how you avoid mixing up left and right prescriptions.

Checking the lens is the right way round

An inside-out lens will not damage your eye, but it will feel scratchy and move too much, and beginners often mistake that for a lens problem or a fitting problem.

Balance the lens on your fingertip and look at its profile from the side. Correct, it forms a clean bowl with the edges pointing straight up. Inverted, the edges flare outwards slightly, like a saucer or a shallow rim. Some lenses also carry tiny laser markings that read correctly only from the right side.

While the lens is on your fingertip, look at it. Any tear, nick, or visible deposit means you discard it. A torn lens edge is sharp against the cornea.

Putting the lens in

1. Rest the lens on the tip of your index finger, on the hand you write with.
2. With the middle finger of that same hand, pull your lower eyelid down and hold it.
3. With your other hand, reach over your head and hold your upper lashes firmly against the brow bone. Holding the lashes rather than the lid itself is what actually stops the blink reflex.
4. Look straight ahead or slightly upward — not at the lens. Watching your own finger approach triggers the flinch.
5. Place the lens onto the white of your eye, slightly below or to the side of the iris. This is far easier than aiming for the centre, and the lens will migrate into place on its own.
6. Release the lower lid first, then the upper. Close your eye gently and roll it around once.

If your vision is blurred afterwards, the lens is usually off-centre or has a smudge on it. Blink several times before assuming anything is wrong.

Taking the lens out

1. Wash and dry your hands again. Removal is when most contamination happens, because people treat it as the casual end of the day.
2. Look upward.
3. Use your middle finger to hold the lower lid down.
4. Slide the lens down onto the white of the eye with your index finger.
5. Pinch it gently between index finger and thumb and lift it away.

Do not pinch at the lens while it is sitting on your cornea. Slide it off first. If it feels stuck, your eye is dry — add a few drops of lubricating solution approved for contact lenses, wait a minute, and try again. Never force it.

Cleaning and storing

For monthly or reusable lenses, after removal:

• Place the lens in your palm, add a few drops of multipurpose solution, and rub gently in a circular motion for about 20 seconds per side. The rubbing step matters more than the soaking — it is what physically removes protein deposits.
• Rinse with fresh solution.
• Store in a clean case, fully submerged, in fresh solution.
• Empty the case, rinse it with solution, and air-dry it face down every single day.
• Replace the case every three months.

Never top up old solution with new. Used solution has already been spent neutralising whatever came off the lens, and adding more does not restore it.

Never rinse lenses or cases with tap water, bottled water, or saliva. Tap water can carry Acanthamoeba, an organism that causes a rare but devastating corneal infection that is notoriously difficult to treat.

Your first two weeks

Build up wearing time rather than jumping straight to a full day. A reasonable schedule is four hours on day one, then adding roughly two hours daily, up to a maximum of eight to ten hours. Your corneas need to adapt to reduced oxygen, and rushing this is what produces red, tired eyes that make people give up on lenses entirely.

Take at least one lens-free day a week if you can.

What is normal, and what is not

Normal in the first week: mild awareness of the lens, watering on insertion, slight redness that clears within an hour of removal, occasional blurring that clears with a blink.

Not normal, and a reason to remove the lens immediately: persistent pain, light sensitivity, redness that does not settle, discharge, or any drop in vision. That combination can indicate a corneal ulcer or infection, and it needs same-day attention from an eye doctor — not a wait-and-see approach. Take the lens out, keep it in its case, and bring it with you.

The rules that do not bend

• Do not sleep in lenses unless they are specifically prescribed for extended wear. Closed-eye wear raises infection risk substantially.
• Do not swim, shower, or use a hot tub in them.
• Do not wear a lens past its replacement date, however good it looks.
• Do not share lenses. Ever, with anyone.
• Do not wear lenses while you have an eye infection, or through a bout of conjunctivitis.

Once the routine is habit, it takes about ninety seconds a day. If you are choosing your first colour lenses, our Ego Vision range comes with base curve and diameter printed on every blister, and our guide to colour lenses for dark brown eyes covers which shades actually show up.

This article is general guidance and does not replace a consultation. Have your eyes examined and lenses fitted by a qualified optometrist before wearing contact lenses of any kind.