Creatine and hair loss - any evidence beyond the one study?

[Dimitri001]

So there is this suspicion that creatine may contribute to hair loss due to one study that found an increase in DHT levels in subjects given creatine. I've heard this notion poo pooed on the basis that the study has never been replicated, but has anyone ever tried replicating it? Are there any other studies that bear on the impact of creatine supplementation on DHT levels?

 

[Jazzyb1]

I use 5MG creatine, anything over this dosage can cause shedding and Hairloss.

 

[Michael Harrop]

From what I've seen, it may accelerate hair loss in select vulnerable people, but it doesn't cause hair loss.

In summary, the current body of evidence does not indicate that creatine supplementation increases total testosterone, free testosterone, DHT or causes hair loss/baldness. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7871530/ - 2021

 

[DHair]

From this YouTube short:

There was this comment from user @JakeShaw-sd2oq

1. The increase was a 50% from baseline, and was statistically significant.
2. Exercise increases DHT in a transient fashion. This increase in the study was measured and replicated many weeks after taking creatine.
3. Serum DHT is absolutely linked to hair loss. To experience and increase in DHT at the follicle site, you would have to experience an increase in serum DHT or an increase in follicular sensitivity. The more DHT in your blood, the more that gets delivered to your hair follicles, how much is attached to the follicle is dependant on how sensitive your follicles are to DHT - i.e, how pre-disposed you are to male pattern baldness or male pattern baldness for short.
That's why when you take Finasteride (the drug that prevents male pattern baldness), it lowers your serum DHT levels by up to 70% - so there is less being delivered to your follicles, and less to be attached. The confusion herein lies when a subject in not pre-disposed to male pattern baldness and an increase or decrease in serum DHT has no affect on local DHT, because their follicles just aren't sensitive enough to be affected.
4. No other studies on creatine have actually looked at DHT, so the fact that it hasn't been replicated in these studies is not evidence. If 100 people that DON'T eat apples report that an apple has never made them sick, is that evidence that apples don't make you sick? Obviously not.

A better way to look at it would be this. Serum DHT is inextricably linked to hair loss. The ONLY study ever to look at creatine and DHT showed a statistically significant increase in serum DHT. There are also tens of thousands of anecdotal accounts detailing creatine consumption inducing hair loss, with the side effects subsiding after discontinuation.

Now, is that enough scientific evidence to forthrightly say creatine causes hair loss, no. But to conclude from these findings that creatine "probably doesn't" have an effect on hair loss is either very poor judgement or just plain dishonesty.