I’ve been playing guitar for almost six years now (FYI, I am a young teenage girl, if that matters at all to the advice given). I am most definitely not a beginner player, and my calluses have gotten very hard. But they still tend to hurt a lot after playing, almost like the day after a workout feeling. It may be because I just play a lot, but even so, I would think that my fingers would develop a tolerance to it. Is this normal? And regardless of whether it is or isn’t, how can I care for them to make sure that my fingers and calluses stay healthy? Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Welcome to the forum Isabella
The only thing I do to my calluses is sand them off with an emery board to keep them smooth.
I work with a lot of sports jerseys and polyester shirts and the calluses snag them if I don’t keep them thin and smooth.
As for your fingures still feeling tender how hard do you press the strings? You don’t need much pressure on a well setup guitar.
I think that I use a pretty normal amount of pressure, but I do have a pretty aggressive playing style so I’m not completely sure. That hasn’t ever really crossed my mind.
If my finger callouses disappear, it’s a reminder to me to play more…
On the other hand 
, I strum using my thumb and fingers instead of a pick. However, I have found that the side of my thumb often gets sore. So much so that I have have to explore different ways to strum - learning to use a flat pick, or a thumb pick. As a left hander, I find the Black Mountain spring-loaded thumb picks to be the best for me. It is hard to find LH one-piece thumb picks at a reasonable price.
1 Like
Yep, same here. Been playing for some years now, but after a healthy session (about 2 hours or so), i feel some pain in my fingers.
I guess it’s something you’ll have to deal with. I wouldn’t know how to stop this feeling, other than to stop playing all together. (i’ll deal with sore fingers. 
)
I don’t do anything special other than applying some cream on my hands, as they tend to get very dry over time.
1 Like
How long does the pain/soreness last? And how bad is bad?
If I play for awhile, I will feel sore. But any fingertip soreness is pretty minimal the next day. The more regularly and consistently I play, the faster that subsides.
I did push myself so hard once that I had numb, tingling fingers for months. I couldn’t feel my fingers on the fretboard so I had to stop playing completely. So now when I want to build up my playing volume, I don’t make such sudden changes.
So I guess the question is, when you say “after playing a lot” is there something different about the a lot part or just more? So if you play daily 30-60 minutes and then one day you play for 3 hours, yes i would expect there would be a little additional pain. Even though your calluses are built up, they are not prepared for that long duration. Also, if when you say “play a lot” do you mean performing? I think there is a tendency when performing to grip tighter, which might have similar effect (your fingers are used to the grip, but not that hard).
In any event, I would expect some level of discomfort or “hurt” whenever you go significantly outside of normal.