UKC

This is less a 'Put some climb:on on after a bouldering session' question.

Every so often I end up having a really good climbing session; either at the wall or out on the grit, and end up there for more than a few hours pulling on hard things (for me). Unfortunately, I have returned home again with literally no skin on my fingertips. Every single one (save my thumbs) has a either a slot or a little red round hole that at the time was bleeding, and now I can barely wash up!

I've climbed for quite a few years, so I shouldn't have particularly soft skin?

What do you do to repair bunged up fingertips as quickly as possible? Pot of sudocrem and eventually getting it everywhere? Plasters and cover or not? Sack up and climb through the pain? (not very hygienic?)

Try to take a week off to let your skin grow back properly. Once the holes have patched up you could try Rhino Skin tip juice. Then resume usual Climb On type application. 
 

Always find climb on softens mine making things worse. Might be just me, but I only use it for keeping flappers and splits from drying out and leave the tips alone to harden up.

I get this problem too - I find the only way to recover is to let it grow back; no combo of lotions and potions beyond good hydration/nutrition has ever really sped things up for me. The approach I opt for now is session management - I've learnt the tipping point for my skin and just work with it. Its a pain, but better than having to take a week off for an extra 3 goes!

Diving into it, it sounds like sudocrem might not be that bad an idea after all.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5793244/

Try to latch holds in a more static way and not fall off.
Tape your fingers if the skin is still thin from last time, even if it lowers your friction on small holds.
Let it heal properly.
 

Skin is quite individual and so different strategies will vary from person to person so I suggest you experiment with the following:

Use Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream frequently and liberally

Use Antihydral Cream occasionally and sparingly 

Sandpaper your tips lightly even on worn fingers. Counterintuitive but stimulates re-growth

Avoid getting your hands wet at all times - use rubber gloves in the shower

If tips are trashed but you want to carry on climbing then tape your tip. Best method is a single layer with the tape overlapping on the nail with superglue spread liberally on the sticky side. Works a treat  

'Use rubber gloves in the shower'...

Smooth talker!

 Just stop doing the washing up.  

Simples 

😂

From when i used to do more regular grit bouldering, i found that my fingertip skin never toughened up from regular use, unlike skin on the back of your hands which does seem to toughen up from jamming etc. Just seems to be something about skin on fingertips which doesn't respond to long term use the same. Only thing that works for me is stopping before it gets too bad. 

During the lockdowns, I had multiple weeks of no indoor or outdoor sessions. Skin recovered but as soon as I'm back to climbing the regrown skin disappears 3x faster than it regrew. It basically makes taking time off, beyond 1 or 2 days to recover general skin wear, pointless in my opinion.

That is unless using antihydral on fully recovered skin helps toughen it to prevent this going forward. Not tried this myself as I'd need convincing the time sacrificed for the healing was worth it.