Does Creatine Cause Hair Loss? What the Research Actually Says

The science on creatine and hair loss is narrower than the internet makes it sound. One small study from 2009 found that creatine loading raised levels of a hormone linked to male pattern baldness. No study has shown that creatine causes hair loss. Those are two different findings, and the distinction matters if you are trying to make a sensible decision about one of the most well-researched supplements in sport.

I am Clemmie Rose, a registered Nutritional Therapist whose clinical practice has included the Wellness Clinic at Harrods and The Kyros Project at Google DeepMind, where I applied data-driven nutritional assessment through advanced biomedical testing. I hold a Diploma in Nutritional Therapy from the College of Naturopathic Medicine and am a registered BANT member. My job here is to represent the evidence accurately - which means being honest about what the 2009 study did and did not find, and clear about where the evidence currently sits.

The entire claim that creatine causes hair loss traces back to a single published study. In 2009, van der Merwe, Brooks, and Myburgh recruited 20 male college rugby players and put them through a creatine loading protocol: 25g per day for seven days, followed by 5g per day for 14 days. They were measuring effects on hormones and performance, not hair.

What the researchers found was that dihydrotestosterone (DHT) - a hormone derived from testosterone - rose significantly during the loading phase and remained elevated during the maintenance phase compared to the placebo group. Specifically, the DHT-to-testosterone ratio increased by around 36% during loading and 22% during maintenance.

DHT is implicated in androgenetic alopecia (the clinical name for male pattern baldness) because it binds to androgen receptors in hair follicles, progressively miniaturising them in people who are genetically predisposed to the condition. That is the biological mechanism that connects the van der Merwe findings to hair loss fears.

The critical point is what the study did not do. It did not measure hair loss. It did not follow participants long enough to observe follicle changes. It did not recruit anyone with androgenetic alopecia or a family history of it. It had 20 participants. It has not been replicated in a study that measured the same DHT effect. And its original DHT findings have not been consistently reproduced by subsequent creatine research.

None of that makes the study wrong. It makes it a single data point in a small sample - precisely the kind of finding that generates headlines and needs careful interpretation before it shapes supplement decisions.

The path from "DHT increased" to "creatine causes hair loss" requires several assumptions, each of which is unproven.

First, it requires that creatine consistently raises DHT. The van der Merwe study found this; other studies have not. A 2021 review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition examined the totality of creatine research and found no consistent pattern of DHT elevation across trials. The 2009 finding may reflect characteristics of the specific population, the loading dose used, or statistical variation in a small sample.

Second, it requires that elevated DHT causes measurable follicle miniaturisation over the timeframes people typically supplement. Even in people who are genetically predisposed to androgenetic alopecia, DHT-driven hair loss is a slow process involving years of follicle change - not weeks. Short-term DHT fluctuations in healthy young men do not automatically translate to permanent hair loss.

There is also the question of whether creatine's effect on DHT is meaningfully different from the variation that occurs naturally with exercise, dietary changes, or other lifestyle factors. There is no evidence that creatine-related DHT changes are uniquely harmful compared to these ordinary fluctuations.

A 2025 randomised controlled trial by Lak et al. followed participants over 12 weeks of standard 5g daily creatine supplementation and found no statistically significant change in DHT at maintenance dose. This does not override the 2009 study, but it reinforces the position that the dramatic DHT elevation seen in the loading protocol was not reproduced at the dose most people actually take.

The bottom line: raised DHT is a biological signal. Hair loss is a clinical outcome. The gap between them is large, and the available evidence does not bridge it.

Beyond the 2009 study, the evidence picture on creatine and hair loss is notable for what is absent. There are no published trials that have used hair loss - measured by follicle density, hair count, or dermatological assessment - as a primary or secondary endpoint in creatine research. The absence of such trials means we cannot say definitively that creatine does not affect hair over the long term. We can say that no study has demonstrated that it does.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) position stand on creatine supplementation holds that creatine monohydrate at standard doses (3 to 5g per day) is safe for healthy adults, with no documented adverse effects on hair. The position stand does not dismiss the van der Merwe findings but places them in the context of an otherwise strong safety record across decades of research.

The NHS does not list hair loss as a known side effect of creatine. The commonly reported side effects in the literature - water retention, minor gastrointestinal discomfort during loading, and the possibility of muscle cramping in some individuals - do not include hair thinning.

This is not blanket reassurance. It is an honest reading of where the evidence currently sits: one DHT finding in one small study, not replicated in hair-loss terms, in a supplement that has otherwise been extensively studied without this outcome appearing.

Collagen for hair growth is a related topic worth noting if you are researching hair health more broadly - collagen's role in the hair follicle environment is a different and more directly studied question than creatine's DHT pathway.

Genetic predisposition is the only plausible risk modifier in the creatine-hair-loss question. Androgenetic alopecia - the pattern of hair thinning common in men and increasingly recognised in women - is driven by genetic sensitivity of hair follicles to DHT. If that sensitivity is already present, and if creatine were to consistently raise DHT (which, as noted, the evidence does not confirm), the concern would be more relevant.

If you have a strong family history of early-onset male pattern baldness, or if you have already noticed temple recession or crown thinning, this is worth discussing with a GP or dermatologist before starting creatine - not because the evidence says creatine will accelerate your hair loss, but because the question of how DHT-sensitive your follicles are is a relevant medical one that a professional can assess. A dermatologist can also evaluate whether any thinning you have noticed is androgenetic in origin or has a different cause entirely.

Women with androgenetic alopecia (which affects around 10% of UK women and increases with age) face a different hormonal picture: the DHT pathway is present but typically less dominant than in men. The van der Merwe study used male participants, and the applicability to female hair loss is even more indirect.

For the majority of people - those without a genetic predisposition to androgenetic alopecia - the existing evidence does not provide a reason to avoid creatine on hair-loss grounds.

If you are already taking creatine and noticing hair thinning, the honest answer is that there is no direct evidence linking the two. Hair thinning has many causes: stress, nutritional deficiencies (particularly iron and ferritin in women), thyroid dysfunction, hormonal shifts, and the natural progression of androgenetic alopecia if you are genetically predisposed to it.

Stopping creatine and attributing improvement to it - or seeing no improvement and concluding it was not the cause - is not a reliable way to test the question. If hair thinning is a concern, the right step is a GP appointment and a blood panel to rule out the common nutritional and hormonal causes before removing a well-evidenced supplement from your routine.

If you are considering starting creatine and the hair question is holding you back: the evidence does not support the level of alarm that circulates online. Begin at a maintenance dose (3 to 5g per day) rather than a loading protocol, since the 2009 DHT effect was observed during a high-dose loading phase. The 2025 Lak et al. RCT found no significant DHT change at standard maintenance dosing over 12 weeks.

If you are looking for a lower-stimulant way to support performance and cognitive energy that avoids the creatine question altogether, our guide to the best lion's mane coffee in the UK covers functional coffee options built around adaptogens and nootropic mushrooms rather than creatine. (Balance Journal is published alongside Balance Coffee, founded by James Bellis.)

For readers who have done their research and want to move forward, our roundup of the best creatine supplements covers third-party tested monohydrate options across price points. If you are looking for dosing specifics, how much creatine per day you actually need is covered in detail in a companion piece.