Calluses only stay if you keep playing. Skip a month and you get to feel the sting all over again.

What practice builds, practice maintains. Calluses are literal proof: they come from repetition and they leave when the repetition does, because the body has no loyalty to work you did last year. Coming back after a month means feeling the beginning again, which stings mainly because you expected your old hands. Nothing was wasted; it just does not keep without upkeep.

If you are mid-gap, plan for the sting instead of being surprised by it. Short sessions, low expectations, most days. The hands come back quicker than they did the first time.