I had a friend who used to paint his fingertips with clear nail polish, but I've never tried that so I can't swear it works. The skin on the ends of my left-hand fingertips is so thick they're virtually insensible.

They're all right when they say that squeezing the life out of the guitar neck accomplishes nothing, but the sad fact is that it's just going to hurt for awhile. It'll pass.

(Does he have a touchy ego? Tell him some girl online said to stop whining and take it like a man. That won't make it hurt less but it might make him complain less.)