My Cut Proscar Is Stored Improperly

Hello Doctor,
I am a 30 year old male who has been taking propecia and/proscar (2 months propecia and 10 months 1/4 proscar) for a year. My partner who is a physician first noticed my hairloss when I was sitting down about a year ago. It is only in the Crown, so I was a bit shocked because I could never see it. I went on the medication and within a few months my partner noticed an improvement (looking back at pictures, I had been thinning in the crown for at least five years before). I also tend to blow dry the spot as it fills the hair out more and is barely noticeable.

Questions
1. At about 11 month mark, I noticed about 5-7 hairs on my pillow in the morning of mainly longer length (about two inches). I’ve also noticed that when I shampoo my hair in the shower on the top back, I have about 5-10 hairs come out. They are longer but not super thick – I don’t have really thick hair anyway. Does this fall under the definition of “shedding”?

2. If so, is it a sign my genetics are overtaking the medication?

3. I’ve been under a lot of personal stress over the past few months as well, the weather has gotten considerably warmer and I haven’t been storing the cut proscar properly (just realized this) – I’ve been cutting like 6 pills and leaving them cut in the pill cutter in the cupboard (no pregnant women or children nearby), could this be impacting the effectiveness?

Thanks

Stress does accelerate hair loss, and improperly storing your cut Proscar pills could limit the drug’s effectiveness. You need to have a good relationship with a doctor you can trust to answer your questions. Hair loss does, at times, accelerate. The drugs do not always work to stop the loss and that is why you need a good doctor who can perform a miniaturization study, get a baseline on the loss process with a measurement he/she can compare as finding like yours appear without explanation.

If you’re seeing a few hairs here and there, that may reflect normal hair cycling, not frank hair loss.