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Finger Skin Care

M

McSqu81

Sep 25, 2010
2
0
#1
Hi guys,

Does anyone have tips on how to keep the skin on their fingers tough but smooth?

The calluses keep peeling and flaking leaving horrible rough areas of skin on the fingers of both hands. I imagine I'm probably not playing regularly enough these to keep the calluses in shape.

Thanks in advance for any advice...
 
#3
rob7 said:
just leave you fingers alone.they will ajust.in time....if you put cream on em they will just go soft and your have it all over again
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply...

It's been going like this for more than a year now and if anything, it's got worse, probably from playing less frequently. I'd hoped it would have sorted itself out by now anyways. I defo wont use anything that will soften the skin.

Perhaps some kind of gentle ex-foliation might help... hmm I shall ponder this...
 
#4
You may find this disgusting but it works, I have been doing it for years. When I was a boy, I worked with manual field workers who used to cut sugar cane with a machete in their bare hands.
Tough hard working men. To get their hands in condition at the start of the season, they would piss on their hands.
Just get a jar of urine, ( I prefer my own, but any will do.) and soak your finger tips in in for a few minutes a few times a day. Also I have found out it is best not to let your wife/girlfriend/mother know about it, especially if you are using some container you found in the kitchen. Good luck and enjoy playing your bass.
 
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#5
geoffthomas57@h said:
You may find this disgusting but it works, I have been doing it for years. When I was a boy, I worked with manual field workers who used to cut sugar cane with a machete in their bare hands.
Tough hard working men. To get their hands in condition at the start of the season, they would piss on their hands.
Just get a jar of urine, ( I prefer my own, but any will do.) and soak your finger tips in in for a few minutes a few times a day. Also I have found out it is best not to let your wife/girlfriend/mother know about it, especially if you are using some container you found in the kitchen. Good luck and enjoy playing your bass.
Click to expand...

Wow, I was going to say super glue but this beats the crap out of that.

+6,000

Bravo sir, bravo.
 
#6
years ago, when I was an Upright only player, someone talked to me about using a light grit sandpaper to keep your fingertip callouses even. I use a 200 grit general purpose sandpaper and a light touch about once every 2 weeks or so, and it has always seemed to work fine at keeping those peeling spots smooth and the callouses nice and even.

just a thought.

good luck
 
#9
geoffthomas57@h said:
You may find this disgusting but it works, I have been doing it for years. When I was a boy, I worked with manual field workers who used to cut sugar cane with a machete in their bare hands.
Tough hard working men. To get their hands in condition at the start of the season, they would piss on their hands.
Just get a jar of urine, ( I prefer my own, but any will do.) and soak your finger tips in in for a few minutes a few times a day. Also I have found out it is best not to let your wife/girlfriend/mother know about it, especially if you are using some container you found in the kitchen. Good luck and enjoy playing your bass.
Click to expand...

+1 gazillion

Never tried urine but sandpaper helps me about it
 
#10
I was going to post this somewhere on TB, and this seems perfect:

In the colder, dry weather and the forced dry heat of my home, I get little splits or cracks in my fingertips every winter. The placement of these little splits is always bad for playing my instrument.

Anyone have ideas how to ease and/or prevent these? Thanks very much.
 
#13
I remember Mark King, bass player of Level 42 saying in an interview, "Don't soak your hands for ages in the bath, that's terrible for them."

I guess any prolonged moisture on the hands would be the same, long showers too maybe.

Aside from that, just keep playing, every day at least a bit.
 
#14
Well, if peeing on your hands is less than appealing, try soaking them in pickel juice. That's what many major league baseball pitchers use on their calluses...
I don't ever have that problem, thank godness, but for those that do, why not try adding some olive oil to your diet and let mother nature do it's thing?
My feeling is that the body is far better equiped to deal with things, than man is, trying to sell me something.
Fishheadjoe
 
#15
You don't want your hands to get water logged from long baths, but if your callouses are peeling off it's because the skin is completely dead. A good callous means the skin has hardened but is still alive. Try putting lotion on your hands regularly to keep the skin from dying.
 

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