Does Creatine Cause Hair Loss? The DHT Study, Checked
Does creatine cause hair loss? Few supplement questions have travelled further on thinner evidence. This page exists for anyone who has stared at a tub of [creatine monohydrate](/ingredients/creatine-monohydrate/), remembered a forum warning about baldness, and put it back. The honest answer, up front: the claim rests entirely on one small 2009 study that measured a hormone and never looked at a single hair — a finding no one has replicated in over fifteen years — while the first trial to actually measure hair, published in 2025, found nothing. That is not the same as absolute proof of zero effect. It is what the evidence actually looks like when you read it instead of repeating it.
Does creatine cause hair loss? Few supplement questions have travelled further on thinner evidence. This page exists for anyone who has stared at a tub of creatine monohydrate, remembered a forum warning about baldness, and put it back. The honest answer, up front: the claim rests entirely on one small 2009 study that measured a hormone and never looked at a single hair — a finding no one has replicated in over fifteen years — while the first trial to actually measure hair, published in 2025, found nothing. That is not the same as absolute proof of zero effect. It is what the evidence actually looks like when you read it instead of repeating it.
Where did the creatine hair loss claim come from?
In 2009, van der Merwe and colleagues published a study in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine involving 20 college-aged rugby players in a crossover design. Participants loaded with creatine for a week, then took a maintenance dose for two more weeks, with hormone blood tests along the way. Testosterone did not change. Dihydrotestosterone — DHT — rose by about 56% after the loading week and remained about 40% above baseline during maintenance, and the DHT-to-testosterone ratio rose too.
DHT is genuinely relevant to hair: in people genetically prone to androgenetic alopecia, DHT acting on sensitive follicles over years drives pattern hair loss. So a headline of “creatine raises DHT 56%” wrote its own sequel in gym folklore: creatine must cause baldness. Notice the leap. The study measured a blood hormone for three weeks in 20 young men. It did not measure hair density, shedding, follicles, or baldness in anyone. The sequel was never in the data.
| Feature | Van der Merwe et al., 2009 | Lak et al., 2025 (JISSN) |
|---|---|---|
| Participants | 20 college rugby players | 38 completers, resistance-trained men (45 enrolled) |
| Duration | 3 weeks (1 loading + 2 maintenance) | 12 weeks |
| Dose | Loading then maintenance | 5 g/day creatine monohydrate vs placebo |
| Hormones measured | Testosterone, DHT | Total and free testosterone, DHT |
| Hair measured | No | Yes — density, follicular unit count, cumulative thickness |
| Main finding | DHT up ~56% after loading; testosterone unchanged | No significant difference in any hormone or hair measure |
| Replicated since | No | Not yet — first direct test |
Why doesn’t the 2009 study prove creatine causes hair loss?
Count the gaps between what it found and what it is quoted for. First, sample: 20 participants is small enough for a couple of unusual responders to move the average. Second, outcome: a short-term hormone fluctuation is a surrogate, several steps removed from follicles miniaturising over years. Third, range: the DHT values, examined closely in the 2025 paper, rose from about 0.98 to 1.53 nmol/L — inside the normal reference range for healthy men, roughly 0.8 to 3.5 nmol/L. A rise within normal limits, during a loading protocol with heavy training, is a different animal from the sustained androgen environment that drives pattern loss. Fourth, context: intense resistance exercise itself perturbs androgen measures, and the players were training throughout. Fifth, and decisively: replication. Science does not retire a hypothesis because one study is old; it retires it when everyone who checks fails to find it again.
And everyone has failed to find it again. A 2021 systematic review by Forbes and colleagues gathered the studies examining creatine’s effect on testosterone and related hormones — twelve in total — and found the large majority showed no significant change, with the only increases appearing in short loading protocols. The reviewers’ conclusion was that current evidence does not support the claim that creatine raises testosterone or DHT at standard doses. Between 2009 and 2025, no study reported hair loss as an outcome of creatine use at all.
What did the 2025 trial that measured hair find?
In 2025, Lak and colleagues published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition the first randomised controlled trial designed to test the hair question directly. Resistance-trained men took 5 g of creatine monohydrate or a placebo daily for 12 weeks. The researchers measured total and free testosterone and DHT, and — the part that took sixteen years to happen — assessed hair itself, using imaging-based measures of hair density, follicular unit count, and cumulative hair thickness.
Nothing moved. There were no significant differences between creatine and placebo in any hormone measure or any hair measure. The DHT spike from 2009 did not appear, and the hair outcome the folklore predicted did not appear either.
Hold this result at its correct strength too. One trial, 38 completers, 12 weeks, in young resistance-trained men, does not hermetically seal a question forever — pattern hair loss unfolds over years, and the trial has not itself been replicated yet. What it does is shift the burden of proof to where it always should have been: onto the claim. After 2025, “creatine causes hair loss” is a hypothesis that failed its first direct test, supported by one unreplicated hormone reading from 2009. Decisions should be priced accordingly.
If creatine isn’t the cause, why do people shed after starting it?
Because the timing is genuinely treacherous. People typically start creatine when they start training seriously — often in their twenties, exactly when genetic pattern loss commonly begins, and exactly when training stress, diet changes, calorie deficits, and life stress peak together. Start any daily habit in that window and it will collect blame for what genetics had scheduled. Shedding also fluctuates seasonally and after illness, and a person newly worried about hair inspects the shower drain with an attention it never previously received.
There is also a stack confounder worth naming. Creatine is frequently started alongside other products — aggressive pre-workouts, “test boosters,” or, in the darkest corner of gym culture, actual anabolic agents that unquestionably affect hair. Creatine, the legal powder with the famous name, absorbs the suspicion. Our supplements to stack with creatine guide deliberately keeps stacks to boring, disclosed ingredients for related reasons.
None of this dismisses anyone’s experience. If you shed noticeably after starting creatine, the right move is a dermatologist visit, a full list of everything you take, and a real diagnosis — pattern loss caught early is far more treatable than pattern loss debated on forums. Stopping creatine in the meantime costs you little; stores wash out over roughly a month. What the evidence does not support is pre-emptively denying yourself a well-studied training supplement over a 2009 hormone reading — or attributing progressive genetic loss to it while the treatable years pass.
Should concern about hair loss change how you take creatine?
For most people, no. The standard protocol — 3–5 g of creatine monohydrate daily, loading optional — is the protocol the safety literature, including the ISSN position stand’s long-term data, is built on. There is no “hair-safe” dose, form, or timing scheme with evidence behind it, because there is no demonstrated hair effect to engineer around. Products implying otherwise, including formulas marketed to women that trade on this fear, are selling reassurance against an unproven risk; creatine for women addresses that marketing directly.
If you have a strong family history of early pattern loss and the anxiety itself is costing you peace of mind, that is a legitimate personal input — supplements are optional, and sleep over a teaspoon of powder is a bad trade either way. Make it an informed preference, though, not a conclusion the data forced. And if hair is a live concern, spend the money a dermatology consult costs before spending it on either creatine or anti-creatine products. One of those purchases returns information.
Who should not take this?
The hair question does not change creatine’s real contraindications, which are about kidneys and life stage, not follicles. Do not start creatine, or check with your doctor or pharmacist first, if you have kidney disease or reduced kidney function — trial safety data come from healthy kidneys, and creatine raises blood creatinine, complicating monitoring. Do not use it while pregnant or breastfeeding; human safety data are insufficient. Under-18s should not self-supplement. Check first if you take medicines that affect the kidneys, including regular NSAIDs, certain diuretics, and some blood-pressure medicines — and that includes telling any clinician who prescribes finasteride or other hair-loss treatment about all supplements you use, so interactions are judged on the full picture. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your own medications and health before starting.
What is the verdict on creatine and hair loss?
Sixteen years, one small study, zero replications, zero hair measured — and then a direct test that found nothing. That is the whole file. Creatine’s real effects are unglamorous and well documented: fuller creatine stores, support for hard training, some water inside muscle that does creatine cause bloating explains, and a safety record the creatine loading phase and timing pages lean on daily. Hair loss is not on that list, and on current evidence it does not belong there. If your hair changes, see a doctor and find the real cause — that advice, unlike the myth, has never failed a replication.
Frequently asked questions
Does creatine cause hair loss or baldness?
There is no direct evidence that it does. No trial has ever measured hair loss as an outcome and found creatine responsible. The only trial to measure hair directly — a 12-week randomised study published in 2025 — found no differences in hair density, follicle measures, DHT, or testosterone between creatine and placebo groups.
What did the 2009 creatine DHT study actually show?
Van der Merwe and colleagues gave 20 college rugby players creatine (loading then maintenance) or placebo over 3 weeks. DHT rose about 56% after loading and stayed about 40% above baseline on maintenance, while testosterone did not change. Hair was not measured, DHT stayed within the normal range, and no later study has replicated the DHT rise.
If DHT causes pattern baldness, shouldn't a DHT rise matter?
Pattern hair loss depends on genetically sensitive follicles exposed to DHT over years, not on a brief hormone fluctuation inside the normal range. The 2009 DHT values stayed within reference limits, the rise was short-term, and it has not been reproduced. A 2021 review of 12 studies on creatine and androgens found most showed no effect on testosterone or DHT.
I started shedding after starting creatine. What should I do?
Take it seriously, but investigate rather than assume. Shedding has many common causes — genetics progressing on its own schedule, stress, illness, rapid weight change, new training stress, and other products. See a doctor or dermatologist, mention everything you take, and let them assess. Stopping creatine while you investigate is your choice and costs little; stores fade over weeks.
Can I take creatine with finasteride or minoxidil?
Current evidence shows no interaction and no reason creatine would interfere with hair-loss treatments. But that is a question for the clinician managing your treatment, not a supplement page — tell them you take creatine, as you should about every supplement, and follow their advice.