I was wondering if anyone knew how I could harden the tips of my fingers. It seems I will build up a good callisus (< don't know if I spelled it right) and then i'll wake up the next morning with soft brittle fingers.
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Double Bass Fingertips
- Thread starter mcnaire2004
- Start date
You can't stop no matter what. I think that it's a natural barrier that the fingers build up. They will come. Man, have you ever seen a conga players hands after repeatedly striking an conga drum, more specificly a tightened animal skin?
Kneehimiah
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Kneehimiah
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There was a mega-thread on this stuff back in time a ways. Don't worry about it too much unless you have problems. People with really dry hands seem to have the only issues. Just play a lot and the rest will take care of itself.
I don't know if thats a joke or not. If it's serius than i do spend like 15 mins in the shower. Sometimes more. I kinda use up all the hot watter
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.As Ray mentioned, there's plenty of information on callouses in other threads. You might want to try a search for 'blisters' too, as I think sometimes the topics have overlapped. If you're worried that you don't have impressive callouses but your fingertips aren't ending up blistered or raw after playing, then there's not so much of a problem really. Everyone's fingers are different (cue Disney song and dance number...)
Play a lot, use a mousturizer afterwards, and if it gets real bad try a little tincture of Benzoin on them overnight, available from supply shops for mountain climbers. I have a little bottle of it, and after a particularly hard night I'll dab some on. There's a certain ebb and flow to callouses we all learn to live with, but it's manageable.
I agree with Reuben - my advice would be don't let the skin dry out, it dries out after prologed use or washing in water (believe it or not - the oils leach out and have to be replaced) so use mosituriser which is an emulsion of oil and water. Moist skin still forms callouses just as well and they don't crack or peel. You don't see them as obviously but I promise you they wil be there. I live with excema and dry skin is an enemy. You can ruin it by letting it dry out once coz it cracks and then you're back to the begining again. My skin also forgets its callouses so quickly that I've had to let them redevelop a few times on my right second finger.
