Safety

Does creatine cause hair loss?

By GyroscopeUpdated November 14, 20264 sources

There’s no good evidence that it does. The worry comes from one 2009 study of 20 rugby players that saw a hormone called DHT rise and never looked at their hair. In 2025 a trial measured hair directly in men taking creatine or a placebo for 12 weeks and found no difference.

Ask in any gym and someone will tell you creatine made their hairline retreat. The story has a mechanism attached, which makes it feel scientific. DHT is the hormone people link to male pattern hair loss, creatine supposedly raises DHT, so creatine must thin your hair. It’s enough to put plenty of men off trying it.

Where the fear came from

In 2009 Johann van der Merwe and colleagues in South Africa gave 20 college rugby players creatine or a placebo during their season, then swapped them over after a six-week break. On creatine they took 25 g a day for a week, then 5 g a day for two more weeks.

Their testosterone didn’t change. Their DHT went up 56% after the loading week and stayed 40% above where it started at the end of three weeks. The researchers suggested creatine might speed up the conversion of testosterone to DHT, and called for more research.

Nobody measured anyone’s hair. The study was about hormones in rugby players, and it was 20 men for three weeks. The 2021 review of creatine questions says most of the speculation about creatine and hair loss “stems from a single study”, this one.

It’s like hearing a smoke alarm in the next apartment and telling everyone the building burned down, without going to look.

The trial that measured hair

In 2025 Mohammadyasin Lak and colleagues ran the first trial that looked at hair. They split 45 men aged 18 to 40 who lifted weights into two groups, 5 g of creatine a day or 5 g of a placebo powder, for 12 weeks. 38 finished.

They measured DHT, testosterone, and the hair itself, using a trichogram and a scalp imaging system that tracked hair density, follicle count and thickness. There were no differences between the groups in DHT, in the ratio of DHT to testosterone, or in any hair measure.

What’s still unknown

The 2025 trial is one trial, in young men without known hair loss, for 12 weeks. Nobody has tested women’s hair, or men who already have pattern hair loss, or used high loading doses like the 2009 study. Those are fair gaps. But the original claim came from a study that never looked at hair, and the one trial that did found no change.

Where the expert groups stand

• 2021 review by creatine researchers. The evidence doesn’t show creatine raising testosterone, free testosterone or DHT, or causing hair loss.
• International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017. Short and long-term creatine use is safe and well tolerated in healthy people.
• 2025 randomized trial. No difference in DHT or hair measures after 12 weeks of 5 g a day.

Checked against these sources on November 14, 2026.