Pinkies too delicate for "fretting" on the guitar..advice??

[Pan]

I've had a damaged hand recently...couldn't/haven't played for a couple of months, and my left hand finger tips have grown all lovely and soft again...mate tells me the short cut to roughening the fingertips again is to rub them with sandpaper..I went ....is there a short cut way? thanks.

no just keep playing till they harden again.

hmmph...was hoping for something a bit easier, nightshade...but I suspect this to be the truth thanks. I reckon the sandpaper malarky would leave you with more tender skin, and a possible infection. My mate can be a prize tosser at times.

all the suggestions are just short-termism. The only real answer is grin and brear it, until they go leathery again

ha! thanks all!!

have glue and some of dd's Pritt-Stick.

doI smear glue, wait for it dry and then play? Does it harden finger tips or just provide a barrier? >

I tried to learn the guitar a few years ago but gave up after 3 chords....however I seem to remember someone telling me to use Surgical Spirit (or something along those lines??) on my finger tips to toughen them up.

(although now I've typed that I'm wondering if I've just imagined it as I can't see how it would help?)

Will try the glue, but knowing in my mind Greeny speaketh true wisdom.

The trauma to my hand has left some nerve damage at the tips here and there. So in a kind of way.
thanks.

Am prepared to suffer for my art...but only when absoultely necessary.

"absoultely"..hmmmm

Betty - I've heard the surgical spirits thing too!

apparently Paganini used to slit the webby bits between his fingers, to enable bigger stretches

Fuck that for a barrel of bananas, says I

. Not telling my 'sandpapering' buddy that one. He'll be round here with a stanley knife...

and some sandpaper...

No, superglue won't harden your fingers, it'll just give you a hard coating for as long is it's there. The protection will actually prevent your fingers hardening. The only way is to play. But do it in short sessions. As soon as they get sore, stop. If you play with sore fingers, you start unconsciously shifting the finger away from the tender part, rolling it slightly, and this can distort your technique.

A lot of short sessions rather than a few long ones is the right way.