Creatine has not been shown to cause hair loss. The fear comes from one 2009 DHT study; a 2025 trial measured hair directly and found no change.
No, creatine has not been shown to cause hair loss. The worry comes from one 2009 study of 20 rugby players in which a hormone linked to balding, DHT, rose 56% during a high-dose loading week; hair was never measured. In a 2025 randomized trial, 5 g of creatine a day for 12 weeks caused no change in DHT or in any hair measure, including hair count, density, and thickness.
If you have searched for creatine, you have probably seen the warning: creatine raises DHT, and DHT makes you go bald. It is one of the most repeated supplement myths in lifting, and it stops some people from taking the best-studied supplement for building muscle.
The claim is not made up. It comes from a real study with a real hormone change. But that study did not look at anyone's hair, its result has not been repeated, and the first trial to measure hair directly found nothing. Here is what the research shows.
No study has shown that creatine causes hair loss in humans. A 2021 review of common creatine questions by Antonio and colleagues concluded that the current evidence does not indicate that creatine increases total testosterone, free testosterone, or DHT, or that it causes hair loss or baldness. A 2025 trial by Lak and colleagues, the first to measure hair directly, found no difference between creatine and placebo in any hair outcome.
| Study | Who | Creatine dose | Measured hair? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| van der Merwe et al. 2009 | 20 college rugby players | 25 g a day for 7 days, then 5 g a day for 14 days | No | DHT rose 56% after loading and stayed 40% above baseline |
| Antonio et al. 2021 (review) | 12 other studies on testosterone | 3 to 25 g a day, 6 days to 12 weeks | No | No consistent rise in testosterone; no study reported hair loss |
| Lak et al. 2025 | 38 trained men who finished | 5 g a day for 12 weeks | Yes | No change in DHT or any hair measure vs placebo |
It came from a single 2009 study by van der Merwe and colleagues in South Africa. Twenty college-aged rugby players took creatine or a placebo in a double-blind crossover design: 25 g a day for 7 days, then 5 g a day for 14 days. Testosterone did not change, but DHT rose 56% after the loading week and was still 40% above baseline after the maintenance phase. The DHT-to-testosterone ratio rose 36% and then 22%.
The authors called for more research on long-term safety. They did not measure hair, and nobody in the study was reported to lose any. Because DHT is linked to male pattern baldness, the jump from "creatine raised DHT" to "creatine makes you bald" spread quickly online.
The Antonio 2021 review adds context: only 16 men completed the 2009 study, free testosterone was not measured, and the DHT values stayed well within normal clinical limits. The result has not been replicated.
It found no effect. In the 2025 randomized controlled trial by Lak and colleagues, 45 resistance-trained men aged 18 to 40 took either 5 g of creatine monohydrate a day or a placebo for 12 weeks; 38 finished. Board-certified dermatologists assessed their scalps with a trichogram and the FotoFinder imaging system.
There were no differences between groups in DHT, the DHT-to-testosterone ratio, or any of eight hair measures: hair count, hair density, the share of hairs in the growth and resting phases, follicular units, the share of thick and fine hairs, and total hair thickness. The authors concluded it provides strong evidence against the claim that creatine contributes to hair loss.
The study has limits worth knowing. It included men only, lasted 12 weeks, and did not use a loading phase. Several authors also disclosed ties to the International Society of Sports Nutrition and to creatine and supplement companies, which the paper lists in its conflict of interest statement.
DHT is the hormone most closely tied to male pattern baldness, which is why the 2009 result got so much attention. MedlinePlus Genetics, from the US National Library of Medicine, says androgenetic alopecia affects an estimated 50 million men and 30 million women in the United States, and more than 50% of men over 50 have some degree of hair loss.
It describes the cause as a mix of genetic and environmental factors, and says hair loss in men is related to androgens, specifically DHT. Too much androgen stimulation shortens the growth phase of hair follicles, so new hairs come in shorter and thinner. In other words, whether DHT thins your hair depends heavily on your genes, not only on how much DHT is in your blood.
Not in a consistent way. The Antonio 2021 review counted 12 other studies that tested creatine's effect on testosterone, at doses from 3 to 25 g a day for 6 days to 12 weeks. Two found small increases in total testosterone that the authors called physiologically insignificant, and the studies that measured free testosterone, the form the body converts to DHT, found no increase.
The 2025 Lak trial also measured DHT directly and found no difference between creatine and placebo after 12 weeks. The DHT rise in the 2009 rugby study has not been replicated.
You do not need to stop creatine because of hair loss, based on current evidence, because no study links the two. If your hair is thinning, the most likely cause for men is androgenetic alopecia, which runs in families and often starts years before anyone takes a supplement. A dermatologist can confirm the cause and discuss treatment.
If you would still rather be cautious, these steps keep you closest to the studies that found no effect:
Our guide to creatine for beginners covers dosing, timing, and the other common myths.
Yes, for most lifters. Creatine is the supplement with the strongest evidence for adding lean mass when combined with training, and the ISSN's 2017 position stand by Kreider and colleagues concludes that creatine monohydrate is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes for increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training. It works by helping you get an extra rep or two on hard sets, so the training itself still does the building. See our ranking of the best supplements for building muscle for what else is worth buying.
Those extra reps only matter if you keep adding them. Alexandros is an iPhone app that tracks that for you: you log a session in plain English, rate how each set felt, and it tells you the weight and reps for next time from your own log. Alexandros is in early access, and its terms say certain features require a paid subscription through the App Store.
The 2009 study that reported a DHT rise used a 25 g a day loading week, and its result has not been replicated. A 2025 trial using 5 g a day for 12 weeks found no change in DHT compared with placebo.
There is no evidence that it will. Male pattern baldness is driven by genes and androgens, and no study has shown creatine speeds it up, though no trial has looked specifically at men with a strong family history.
There is no evidence that it does, but the research is thin. The 2025 hair trial included only men, and the 2009 DHT study also studied men.
You do not need to load at all. The ISSN's 2017 position stand notes that 3 g a day for 28 days raises muscle creatine more gradually, and a 5 g daily dose matches the dose used in the 2025 trial that found no hair changes.
In healthy adults, the ISSN's 2017 position stand concluded that creatine monohydrate is safe at recommended doses, including long-term use. Tell your doctor you take it, because it can raise creatinine on blood tests.
