Edit: Swim goggles should work too if you don't have to worry about glasses.

I know this will be obvious to some, but I've never seen anyone in my family wear them. It's so obvious once you think about it, and yet I'd wager most people (especially ones who don't cook as a hobby) have never tried this.

The reason you cry is because slicing onions produces an organosulfur called syn-Propanethial-S-oxide. Lab goggles – as designed – keep the chemical irritant from reaching your eyes. I've used them hundreds of times now, and I think there was one time it got into my eyes when I didn't have the goggles situated right (not difficult; I was just being a moron).

My 3M anti-fog pair were about $5 USD when I got them, and it looks like they're about $7.50 USD now. For that price, I never have to dread cutting up onions again. It's not magic; it's just basic PPE, and it works. You can even wear them over eyeglasses (I'm sure some huge, circular frames won't fit, but most should).

Even if you forget them and remember them midway through slicing, it can still help somewhat. So even if you're as absent-minded as I am, you can benefit from trying this.

These (below) were the ones I got personally, but feel free to try what you already have if you already have a pair on-hand for e.g. cleaning. I'd assume the important thing is just that they're goggles, not glasses.

Why YSK: owie, oof, ouchie, my eyes. Cooking is just DIY organic chemistry.

is it weird that I don't really have this problem?

I think so?? Some of it depends, I think, on the variety of onion (e.g. I've always found sweet onions to be gentler compared to white onions). I don't always cry without them per se, but it still feels noxious.

You can also chew strong minty gum, which will also stop you from crying :3

My dad always sliced onions wearing diving goggles. Always said he might look stupid but it works.

Oh, with a denim apron and lab goggles, I look like a bootleg Jesse Pinkman. But that kind of makes things a bit more fun in its own way.

Tried it before. It still didn't stop me from crying like watching the end of Gattaca. Must've been a bad seal somewhere.

Sharpening your knife will help, too. Crushing the onion with your chef’s spoon releases way more of the cry gas.

Use a sharp knife because a duller knife is less safe, and it does more smashing than cutting which casues more fumes.

Don't put your head over the onions as you work. Take a half step back and extend your arms more so you're further away from the fumes.

If your kitchen is not well ventilated, put your cutting board on the stove and turn on the hood.

Don’t cut the root off either. Use it to hold the onion together and in my experience also seems to lessen the effect on my eyes.

I don't consider onion tears a problem. It's an experience I would not want removed from my life, as it is one of those things letting me feel the nuance of being alive.

Red onions bring the most tears here, and yellow the least. I never notice yellow being an issuez but reds will make me take a step back sometimes to blot my eyes with something lol

I can't relate to that dread part at all. If I knew it was harmful to my eyes I would reconsider this stance, but otherwise, yeah, I'm glad for the pain it causes.

A Metal Gear villain in the making.

Tried this with a pair of swim goggles once. Worked with the onions, but got clowned so hard by my roommates I cried anyway 😭

The difference when I'm wearing my contact lenses to when I'm wearing glasses is crazy. With my contacts in, onions barely bother me at all. Glasses on the other hand and I have to step back and take a breather.

How soft do you have to be to cry over cutting an onion? Like, they can't even feel it so just chill.

We vegans kind of slide everything over, so slaughtering animals becomes unthinkable, and butchering vegetables becomes sad.

Cut an onion everyday to keep the onion tears at bay

I feel plenty alive wearing swimming goggles in my kitchen.

Then all of a sudden your goggles are filled with tears.

You know what? If that carrot were in the wild, it'd be way worse off. Imagine being gnawed on for hours by a rabbit; I'm giving it a quick, painless(TM) death. You moralizing nihilivores are obnoxious.

THINK OF THE POOR BABY CARROT!!!! 🥕

[insert modified justification from Vegan Bingo here]

Funny enough, I learned this from Pokémon Journeys of all things.

Source: The episode where Goh catches Sobble, Ash and Goh remember Mimey wearing goggles while cutting onions, which is how they manage to stop Team Rocket from capturing it.

You can also just add water. Cut them wet.

Swim goggles are better at making a seal, and are more covenant to throw in a drawer or something.

This is true. (re: droplets; study also rejects the popular chilling method). People in my experience don't understand how much safer a sharp knife is until you put one in their hands and get them to just try it.

Otherwise, though, the "fume hood" approach seems extremely excessive when a cheap, comfortable, unobstructive pair of goggles is likely to work more consistently and with less thought. I merrily chop with my cutting board wherever I want and standing however I want.

A sharp knife is something you should be using regardless, but these other methods like meticulous posture, fume hoods, pre-soaking, etc. all seem more convoluted and varying degrees of less effective than grabbing some goggles from a drawer and putting them on your face.

Presoaking and making the cut slightly more dangerous seems like a silly solution when you have a pair of goggles in a drawer unless you're waiting for your soon-to-be-only pair of goggles in the mail. Especially because all you're likely to be doing is kind of watering down the droplets, making it less bad.

Yeah, I mention those at the top, but doesn't work for people who need/want to wear glasses. Plus, at least to me, putting on swim goggles dry pulls on my hair and is uncomfortable. Lab goggles are the more generalized – and arguably comfortable – solution, and realistically, there's no issue with the lab goggles' seal (the mistake I made one time was because I was being an idiot and wouldn't have been prevented by swim goggles).

Sharpness of your knife, time spent cutting, how close your face is to it and I'm pretty sure just biological differences all play part.
I used to "cry" more from it when I was a teenager because my mom had shitty knives and I was just worse at cutting them so it took more time and I was shorter (obviously).
Now I only have any issues at all at home when I'm sitting down, which I sometimes have to due to bad knee and back.
And almost always get it pretty bad when I'm cooking with/for my mom and other family members at her place as she only has serrated knives, which makes it a lot worse, but she refuses to have anything else.

DO NOT CHOP ONIONS WHILE COOKING WITH REMAINING EYE

Same with swim goggles and snow goggles.

"Chemistry, dickbag!"

I just refrigerate my onions and don’t seem to have any issues.

I just turn on a room fan blowing my way or the hood fan and chop nearby.

I lift weights and have sex with girls. Works for me.

Keeping your knives wicked sharp also helps a lot.

Provably so!

Yeah and these goggles will also save you from oil drops flying around and into your eyes when you fry some fish in the pan.

Onions don't bother me either. I used to volunteer to cut them doing prep work so my co-workers didn't have to cry. I think we're just lucky. I guess it's our lame superpower.

COVID masking worked too

Congratulations on adding three pushups to your weightlifting regimen.

I think by adding H2O you eliminate most of the vapour..I think. It works.

Or, y'know, you could just harden the fuck up.

You waste so much onion that way though

I also use lab goggles to cut onions (former stem majors, unite!) Swim goggles are way less comfortable and useable.

I cook with a lot of produce diverted from waste streams -- perfectly fine to eat but not the prettiest. Sometimes some old onions get in the mix too, and those are the ones that get really sulfury.

I guess it depends on how much you leave behind. No different for me.

It absolutely works if you just wash them beforehand (not soak), or when you've cut them in half/quarters.

Just remember: The Onion would do the same to you if it could.

I cut it in half and slice off a much as I need then put the rest in a snapware in the fridge. Eventually it all gets used. I've had onions last for weeks doing this. No crying either.

That's what I was saying