Although early research raised concerns that creatine could contribute to hair loss by increasing dihydrotestosterone (DHT; a testosterone metabolite), newer research provides evidence against this concern.
By binding to androgen receptors in susceptible hair follicles, DHT can cause hair follicles to shrink, ultimately leading to hair loss.[1][2] That said, whether a given hair is more or less likely to fall out depends on its location (in male-pattern hair loss, the crown and hairline thin first) and the person’s genetic predisposition to hair loss.[3][4]
A proposed mechanism behind creatine’s effect on testosterone
The idea that supplemental creatine could be associated with hair loss largely originates from the findings of a 2009 randomized controlled trial.[5] In this trial, college-aged male rugby players who took creatine monohydrate for 3 weeks had a 41% increase in their blood levels of DHT. The baseline DHT concentration was 0.98 nmol/L, and the concentration after 3 weeks was 1.26 nmol/L, and both values were well within the normal range.
Until early 2025, this was the only trial that had tested creatine’s effects on DHT. However, 12 other trials tested creatine’s effects on testosterone. Of these 12, only 2 trials (lasting 6 and 7 days) reported increases in testosterone levels,[6][7] and the remaining 10 trials (which ranged in duration from 6 days to 12 weeks) found no effect.[8][9][10][5][11][12][13][14][15][16] Importantly, 5 of these trials specifically tested creatine’s effects on free testosterone, the form of testosterone that gets converted to DHT, and found no significant increases.[8][11][13][9][15]
Most recently, a 2025 randomized controlled trial directly tested the effect of 12 weeks of supplementation with creatine monohydrate (5 grams/day) on hormone levels and hair growth parameters in young men without any known health conditions.[17] It found no significant changes in DHT, total or free testosterone, or in any hair growth parameters (including hair density, follicular unit count, and cumulative hair thickness) compared to a placebo. This trial provides the first direct evidence that creatine does not negatively affect hair growth.
To sum up: (i) Only one trial has reported an increase in DHT levels with supplemental creatine; (ii) although DHT levels increased, they stayed well within the normal range; (iii) 10 of the 12 trials which looked at the effect of supplemental creatine on testosterone (five of which also looked at free testosterone) reported no effect; and (iv) a 2025 randomized controlled trial found no changes in the concentrations of hormones (including DHT) or hair growth parameters following 12 weeks of supplementation with creatine.
With the above in mind, we can conclude that supplementing with creatine is unlikely to cause hair loss.