This is going to sound silly. After starting guitar, you start building up calluses. Doesn’t taking showers and washing dishes break down the calluses?
Some, but not all. It takes months to build up good callouses.
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My callouses built up slowly as I started to play, took several weeks and peeled a few times till they got solid. When I was on holiday, I had a lot of water contact and didn’t play for 14 days and they were almost gone and needed to be build up again. I try to avoid skin softening products for hands as urea cream at my callouses and wear gloves while washing dishes. When callouses get rough, I use an emory board to take away those loose parts.
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Easy solution. Buy a dishwasher and stop showering. Problem solved.
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Not a silly question at all Maya, I see absolutely where you’re coming from. But to answer the question no not really at all, once you’ve got a solid “foundation” callous it’s with you, you might lose a top layer or two from time to time but the underneath build up remains.
I don’t think exposure to water does long-term damage to callouses, Maya. What you want to avoid is not playing for extended periods of time in which callouses soften. What I find is water does soften my calousses so I seldom play straight after a shower, swim, etc.
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Thank you Notter - that’s good to hear!
Awesome…thanks David!
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I agree with everything that has been said, except for @jkahn JK’s “advice” maybe 
Ok, a dishwasher would be tempting 
Using hand cream just before practicing has been completely counter-productive for me. I couldn’t play a sound without buzzing. So using cream I then did after practicing, if at all. Dish washing during my first 4 weeks of guitar playing has not prevented my calluses to build up nicely. As Andrea said, it took a few weeks, and during that time I practiced only 20 mins a day, but regularly.
Happy playing 
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It’s funny, I use to have calluses when I started. Now I just have thicker pads on the ends of my fingers. Most days I wash dishes before I play. The warmth seems to help with the arthritis which makes playing easier. 
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What do you mean Franz, you guys are still showering?!?!?
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And Shaving!!! 
I’m not worried about the callouses on my face!!! 
Tod
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Seriously, I often use a foot file or emory board to keep my callouses edges smooth. Otherwise they snag on fabric or my grandkids (and their grandmother) complain about the roughness. You just have to be careful not to take too much off at a time! I follow the advice David P offers & don’t play straight after anything that softens the skin… it’s a good way to really rip the skin on your fretting hand!
Tod
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I’ve found a glass nail file to be much better for filing calluses (callus and callous are different things) than an emery board because the abrasive surface is finer grained and leaves the calluses smoother, plus little risk of taking off too much.
I usually play right after I take a shower, and have never found it to be a problem.
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Ok, well there seems to be mixed feedback. I’ll just keep playing, using gloves for dishes which isn’t a bad idea anyway and watch the water before I play.
I’m a shop techinician (mechanic/electrician) and I work with my hands mechanically so I build up calluses there too. Not going to worry about it too much.
Thanks
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Washing dishes without gloves may not be good for calluses, but it will help keep mechanic grease off the precious guitar. It is a balance I suppose.
After almost 3 years, I don’t even think or notice callouses. They are there, constantly (assuming I beep playing I suppose) and work great.
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My youngest brother, who used to play several nights a week in bars on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, moved to a different part of the state and stopped playing completely. The other day he picked up his guitar after not having touched it for well over a year. He said he couldn’t play worth a damn, but that he still had calluses after all that time.
Wow! That’s amazing.