Creatine causes hair loss

The one trial that measured hair directly found no difference. Thirty-eight resistance-trained men took 5 grams of creatine monohydrate or a placebo daily for 12 weeks, and hair count, density, thickness and the share of hairs in the growth phase did not differ between the groups. DHT, the hormone most closely tied to pattern hair loss, did not differ between the groups either.

That is one small, short study in young men, and it is most of the direct evidence there is. It did not record family history of hair loss or report how many participants already showed pattern thinning, it ran for three months, and no study has measured hair in women taking creatine. What it describes is no detectable change in one group of men over one 12-week period.

The concern traces to a 2009 trial in 20 college rugby players, run as a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover. After seven days of loading at 25 grams a day, blood DHT in the creatine condition rose 56 percent, and after a further 14 days at 5 grams a day it remained 40 percent above baseline. The ratio of DHT to testosterone rose 36 percent and stayed 22 percent higher, while testosterone itself did not change. That trial did not measure hair. A 2021 review by creatine researchers noted that DHT in the creatine condition started about 23 percent lower than in the placebo condition, that values stayed within normal clinical limits throughout, and that the result had not been repeated.

The 2025 trial did not find the DHT rise. Its protocol differed: a steady 5 grams a day for 12 weeks with no loading phase, against a loading week at 25 grams followed by two weeks at 5 grams. The two results may describe different conditions rather than directly contradict each other, and no trial has repeated the loading protocol with hair measured. The 2021 review also counted 12 other creatine trials that measured testosterone, at doses from 3 to 25 grams a day over 6 days to 12 weeks. Ten found no change, two found small increases after six and seven days, and the five that measured free testosterone, the form the body uses to produce DHT, found no increase.

DHT's part in pattern hair loss is well documented. The enzyme 5-alpha reductase converts testosterone into DHT, which binds the androgen receptor more strongly than testosterone does, and androgen signaling at the base of genetically susceptible follicles drives the gradual shrinking that defines pattern hair loss. Drugs that block the enzyme lower DHT in the scalp and are used to treat the condition. What has not been shown is that creatine acts on this pathway where it matters: both trials measured DHT in blood rather than in scalp or hair, and the 2025 trial's authors note that no mechanistic study has linked creatine to hair follicle biology.

Most of the direct evidence comes from a connected group of researchers. Two authors of the 2025 trial also wrote the 2021 review, and authors of the 2025 trial disclose advisory or consulting roles with supplement companies and creatine suppliers. The 2025 trial reports no dedicated funding and used a commercial creatine product, with support acknowledged from that brand's Iranian representative, while its trial registration names an Iranian dermatology research center as the source of support. In that trial no side effects were reported in either group, and creatinine and estimated kidney filtration did not change.