# Creatine Caused No Hair Loss in the Only Trial to Check

URL: https://sciencebased.news/creatine-hair-loss/
Published: 2026-11-02  Updated: 2026-11-02
Claim: Taking 5 g of creatine a day won't thin your hair. Grade: Promising

What to do:
- Take 3 to 5 g of creatine monohydrate a day. The hair trial used 5 g daily for 12 weeks, with no loading phase.
- Expect no change in your hair at 12 weeks: hair count, density and thickness matched placebo in 37 men.
- Safety: Hair thinning? See a dermatologist before blaming the tub. With kidney disease, ask your doctor before taking creatine.
- Not proven: that hair is safe past 12 weeks, on 25 g loading doses, in women, or in men with baldness in the family.


# Creatine Caused No Hair Loss in the Only Trial to Check

*Evidence check, November 2, 2026*

> **The claim:** Taking 5 g of creatine a day won't thin your hair.
>
> **Our grade: Promising.** In the only trial that counted hair, men on 5 g a day for 12 weeks matched men on a dummy powder, both on hair and on DHT, the hormone behind male pattern baldness. Caveat: 37 men over 12 weeks is too small and too short to rule out a slow change.

![A man in his mid-20s with thick dark wavy hair runs a hand through it and smiles, with a white tub labeled Creatine on the shelf beside him](https://sciencebased.news/images/creatine-hair-loss-hero.jpg)

"Creatine makes you go bald!" That is the title of a June 2023 TikTok from the account @stophairloss [10].

Here is what the one trial that actually counted hair found. Among 37 men who lift, those who took 5 g of creatine a day for 12 weeks came out the same as those on a dummy powder, with dermatologists checking the hair [1]. For 16 years nobody had measured. So why did the study that started the scare see DHT, the hormone behind male pattern baldness, jump 56% [2]?

| Study | Type | People | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lak 2025 [1] | Human RCT, double-blind | 38 men who lift, 12 weeks, 5 g a day | No difference from placebo in 8 hair measures, DHT or testosterone |
| van der Merwe 2009 [2] | Human RCT, double-blind crossover | 20 rugby players (16 finished), 3 weeks, 25 g then 5 g a day | DHT up 56%, then 40%; testosterone flat; hair not measured |
| Antonio 2021 [6] | Narrative review | 12 other testosterone studies, 3 to 25 g a day, 6 days to 12 weeks | 10 no change, 2 small rises; no study reported hair loss |

The answer matters beyond your hairline. [Muscle and strength](/topics/strength-and-muscle/) are what keep the body working as it ages, and [our creatine article](/creatine/) grades the supplement's muscle and strength benefits Solid, so a hair scare that puts people off it has a real cost.


This is part of our series on [creatine](/creatine/), after [creatine and your kidneys](/creatine-kidneys/) and [creatine and memory](/creatine-memory/).

## Where the claim came from

It started with one study, and it never looked at hair.

In 2009, researchers in South Africa gave 20 college rugby players creatine and a placebo in turn, and neither the men nor the researchers knew which was which [2]. The dose was 25 g a day for 7 days, then 5 g a day for 14 days. DHT in the blood rose 56% after the first week and stayed 40% above the start after the third. The ratio of DHT to testosterone rose 36%, then stayed 22% higher. The authors wrote that creatine may speed the conversion of testosterone to DHT.

The idea spread on the biggest health podcasts. On April 11, 2022, Dr. Kyle Gillett told Andrew Huberman on Huberman Lab: "Creatine, like creatine monohydrate can significantly increase the conversion of testosterone to DHT." Asked about hair, Gillett said: "I don't like to say it causes it, but it can be a little bit more fuel to the fire" [3].

Rhonda Patrick traced it back on FoundMyFitness on May 13, 2024: "So that link between creatine supplementation and hair loss originates from this one study" [4]. Peter Attia added on his September 9, 2024 Q&A that "genetic sensitivity to DHT appears far more important than absolute DHT level" [5].

The fear is reasonable. DHT can bind to susceptible hair follicles and shrink them [1]. But nobody had shown the next step, from creatine to DHT to less hair.

## Does creatine cause hair loss?

At 5 g a day for 12 weeks, it did not. Hair and DHT on creatine matched placebo.

The trial, with Mohammadyasin Lak of the Sport Sciences Research Institute of Iran as first author, randomly assigned men aged 18 to 40 who had lifted weights for at least a year [1]. They averaged 26.7 years old. Neither they nor the researchers knew who got what: 5 g of creatine monohydrate a day, or 5 g of maltodextrin. There was no loading phase. Of the 39 men who started, 38 finished, and 37 had their hair checked at the end.

Dermatologists at the Iran Skin Research Center imaged the crown, a common site of pattern thinning, and read the images with a standard hair analysis. They tracked eight measures, from hair count to total thickness. None differed between the groups, and none changed clearly over time.

![Two bar charts of averages before and after 12 weeks. Hair density at the crown, in hairs per square centimeter: creatine 168 before and 174 after, placebo 166 before and 185 after. DHT in the blood, in ng/dL: creatine 53 before and 54 after, placebo 53 before and 52 after. The gaps between groups were within chance.](https://sciencebased.news/images/creatine-hair-loss-chart.png)

*After 12 weeks on 5 g of creatine a day, hair density at the crown and DHT in the blood showed no clear difference from placebo, so the DHT rise behind the baldness worry did not appear in this trial. Redrawn from Figures 3 and 5 of Lak et al., 2025 [1]. Starting DHT is from the paper's Table 1; the other values were read from the figures.*

Blood tests told the same story. DHT stayed flat in both groups. The ratio that had worried people in 2009, DHT to testosterone, fell in both groups, with no difference between them. Total testosterone rose and free testosterone fell in both groups, so creatine wasn't the cause. The authors suspect the season.

| Measure | Creatine, before to after | Placebo, before to after | Between groups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hair count in the imaged area | 152 to 157 | 150 to 168 | No clear difference |
| Hair density, per square centimeter | 168 to 174 | 166 to 185 | No clear difference |
| Hairs in the growing phase | 80% to 79% | 80% to 79% | No clear difference |
| Total hair thickness, mm per square centimeter | 8.5 to 8.3 | 9.4 to 9.3 | No clear difference |
| DHT, ng/dL | 53 to 54 | 53 to 52 | No clear difference |

In the closest test yet to a normal lifter's routine, 12 weeks of the usual dose did no measurable harm to the men's hair.

That leaves the 56% jump. Nobody has tested why the rugby study looked so different, but two clues stand out. One is the dose: it opened with five times as much creatine. The other is the starting line. DHT began 23% lower before creatine than before placebo, 0.98 against 1.26 nmol/L, and every value stayed within the normal range [1, 6]. A 2021 review adds that the result has not been repeated, and that of 12 other creatine studies measuring testosterone, 10 found no change and 2 found small rises [6].


The 2025 trial (Lak et al.) was randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled, registered as IRCT20240814062762N1, with 5 g of maltodextrin as the placebo. Hair at the vertex was imaged with a FotoFinder system and read as a trichogram. A repeated measures ANOVA found no group-by-time interaction for hair density (p = 0.51) or DHT (p = 0.70), both 0.95 after false discovery rate correction, and rank-based tests agreed. The range in the next section is our 95% confidence interval for the difference between groups in the change in density, from the F of 0.45 and mean square error of 1,978 in Table 2. Total testosterone changed by +124 ± 149 ng/dL on creatine and +216 ± 203 on placebo, and free testosterone by -9.0 ± 8.7 and -9 ± 6.4 pg/mL; the effect of time had p < 0.001 and did not differ by group.

The 2009 rugby study was a double-blind crossover with a 6-week washout, and its placebo was glucose. DHT on creatine went from 0.98 to 1.53 to 1.38 nmol/L, and on placebo from 1.26 to 1.09 to 1.06, against a normal range of 0.8 to 3.5 [1].


## What the hair trial can't tell you

How much can one trial of 37 men rule out?

Less than its headline suggests. It was small and the measure was noisy. By our calculation from the paper's Table 2, the result fits anything from about 56 fewer to 28 more hairs per square centimeter than placebo, against a start of about 168. A dramatic loss is unlikely. A slower one isn't ruled out.

Twelve weeks is short for a process that runs over years, and the trial never asked about family history. That matters: the authors note that men whose fathers lost their hair were twice as likely to lose theirs [1]. Men who had used finasteride or minoxidil were excluded, and the paper doesn't say whether any men were already thinning.

It tested 5 g a day, not the 25 g loading dose from the rugby study. It measured DHT in blood, not in the scalp. And it tested only men. We found no trial of hair in women on creatine, so that question has no direct answer.

Then there is the question of who ran it. The trial reports no funding, but the paper thanks the Iranian representative of the brand that made the creatine, and three authors have ties to supplement makers or to the sports nutrition society that publishes the journal [1]. Dermatologists did the hair checks, and the people analyzing the data were blinded.

## Our grade

| Claim | Evidence | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 5 g a day leaves hair unchanged for 12 weeks | One blinded placebo trial, 37 men | Promising |
| 5 g a day leaves DHT unchanged | One blinded placebo trial, 38 men; a 3-week study with a loading dose saw a rise | Promising |
| Creatine is safe for hair over years | No study | Unproven |
| Loading doses or women's hair | No study of hair | Unproven |
| Overall: 5 g of creatine a day won't thin your hair | One good trial points the right way; it needs repeating, for longer | Promising |

The case for the other side starts with the rugby study. It was blinded too, and its DHT rise was large. A 12-week trial at a lower dose doesn't erase it.

The second point is the critics. The American Hair Loss Association faulted the trial for screening no one's genes and measuring no DHT in the scalp [7]. Those are fair gaps.

In creatine's favor, its researchers see no pattern in the wider record. Darren Candow, who studies creatine, told FoundMyFitness in 2025 that across more than a thousand people he has tested, no one has reported hair loss [8]. That is one researcher's experience, not data, but it fits the absence of any study reporting it [6].

Two things would change the grade. A second trial with the same result, lasting 6 months or more, would move it toward Solid. A trial showing faster thinning in men with baldness in the family would pull it down.

## What this means for you

If you lift, or want the muscle and strength benefits [our creatine article](/creatine/) grades Solid, the hair worry is no reason to skip it. Take 3 to 5 g a day. You don't need a loading phase [6], which also keeps you at the dose that was actually tested on hair.

Over 12 weeks, the trial suggests you should see no change in hair at all. If your hair does start thinning, the likelier story is the one you'd have had anyway, since pattern baldness runs in families [1]. See a dermatologist, who can check the cause. No study has tested whether hair grows back after stopping creatine, because no trial has shown creatine took any away.

If baldness runs in your family, the honest answer is that this trial didn't check men like you separately. A simple step is to photograph your crown in the same light every 3 months, so you are judging by evidence and not by the mirror on a bad day.

So the tub can stay on the shelf. The only trial that counted hairs gives you good reason to keep taking your 5 g a day.



## What's next

The trial that would settle this is already written. In 2020, Texas Tech University registered a double-blind trial of 5 g a day for 6 months in men aged 18 to 35, with hair checks and DHT, and it was withdrawn before anyone enrolled because the sponsor stepped back [9]. Run that design, ask about family history, and add women, and the question gets a firm answer. We will update this article when a new trial reports.

Meanwhile, see what creatine does for [muscle](/creatine/), whether it is [safe for your kidneys](/creatine-kidneys/) and what it does for [memory](/creatine-memory/). Those answers are the reason this question matters: for a supplement with this much behind it, the hair worry has so far come up empty.

## Sources

1. Lak M, Forbes SC, Ashtary-Larky D, Dadkhahfar S, Robati RM, Nezakati F, Khajevandi M, Naseri S, Gerafiani A, Haghighat N, Antonio J, Tinsley GM. Does creatine cause hair loss? A 12-week randomized controlled trial. *Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition*, 2025. 38 men finished (37 with hair data), randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12 weeks; no funding reported; three authors have ties to supplement makers or the journal's society. [doi:10.1080/15502783.2025.2495229](https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2025.2495229)
2. van der Merwe J, Brooks NE, Myburgh KH. Three weeks of creatine monohydrate supplementation affects dihydrotestosterone to testosterone ratio in college-aged rugby players. *Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine*, 2009. 20 men, double-blind placebo-controlled crossover, 3 weeks each with a 6-week washout. [doi:10.1097/JSM.0b013e3181b8b52f](https://doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0b013e3181b8b52f)
3. Huberman Lab. Dr. Kyle Gillett: How to Optimize Your Hormones for Health & Vitality. April 11, 2022. [hubermanlab.com](https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/how-to-optimize-your-hormones-for-health-and-vitality)
4. FoundMyFitness. How Creatine Supports Muscle Energy and Training. Rhonda Patrick, May 13, 2024. [foundmyfitness.com](https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/should-you-supplement-with-creatine)
5. Attia P. AMA #63 (episode 316). The Peter Attia Drive, September 9, 2024. [peterattiamd.com](https://peterattiamd.com/ama63/)
6. Antonio J, Candow DG, Forbes SC, Gualano B, Jagim AR, Kreider RB, et al. Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show? *Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition*, 2021. Narrative review; several authors work with creatine makers. [doi:10.1186/s12970-021-00412-w](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00412-w)
7. American Hair Loss Association. Creatine and Hair Loss: What the Latest Study Got Right — and What It Missed. April 29, 2025. [americanhairloss.org](https://www.americanhairloss.org/creatine-and-hair-loss-what-the-latest-study-got-right-and-what-it-missed)
8. FoundMyFitness. Debunking myths: creatine and hair loss. Darren Candow, April 22, 2025. [foundmyfitness.com](https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/debunking-myths-creatine-hair-loss)
9. Texas Tech University. Influence of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation on Androgens and Global Hair Assessments. ClinicalTrials.gov, withdrawn, 0 enrolled. [NCT04298840](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04298840)
10. Amir (@stophairloss). Creatine makes you go bald! TikTok, June 5, 2023. [tiktok.com](https://www.tiktok.com/@stophairloss/video/7241073597719104810)