Find Out If Creatine Side Effects Cause Hair Loss

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Can Creatine Cause Hair Loss

Imagine having amazing performance and growth in the gym.

This is due to creatine maximizing your athletic potential.

However, there might be some side effects, particularly related to hair loss that you should consider.

In this article, we will discuss hair related side effects as well as background on creatine benefits and proper supplementation.

Let’s dive in!

What Is Creatine?

Creatine is a molecule that is produced naturally by your body. It is produced from other amino acids such as methionine, glycine, and arginine.

It is not a foreign substance, but supplementation can provide a number of benefits.

Many athletes and bodybuilders supplement creatine for muscle growth and performance.

Creatine is able to provide a rapid fuel source for muscles to use when exercising and lifting weights.

With more fuel for muscle cells, you can perform better which directly leads to more muscle growth.

Other benefits of taking creatine supplements include improved brain function, joint protection, and increased insulin sensitivity.

How To Take Creatine

In order to reap the benefits of creatine your body needs to be saturated by it. The standard recommendation for dosage is 5g of creatine per day.

If you are a larger individual, 10g per day may be the right dosage for you and might help you maximize benefits.

With regard to timing, it does not matter when you take creatine.

Some people supplement in the mornings while others take it at night. You can also take it pre or post workout.

What actually matters is having consistent creatine levels in your body. So, having a creatine loading phase is largely unnecessary.

We personally take 5g of creatine monohydrate in the morning pre-workout.

How Creatine Helps Build Muscle Mass

Building Muscle With Creatine

To understand how creatine helps build muscle, we will need to cover some biochemistry.

Hopefully you learn something new here.

When creatine is supplemented or synthesized in our body, it creates creatine phosphate by binding to a phosphate molecule.

How is creatine phosphate used?

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), our body’s main source of energy, is given off each time a phosphate molecule is used.

So, each time creatine is converted to creatine phosphate, it donates the phosphate molecule to ADP to create more ATP. This ATP can then be used as muscle cell fuel.

ADP is adenosine diphosphate and is basically the “energy currency” of the cell.

Now, with increased ATP levels, you have more fuel to use during high intensity exercise.

Your workouts will be more intense and you will be able to get an extra rep that you wouldn’t normally get without creatine.

Another benefit for muscle growth from creatine is cellular hydration. Creatine allows for more water to be held by the cell. This will allow for the following things:

  • Improved muscle appearance making the muscle look bigger and more dense
  • Enhanced “pump” allowing for additional nutrient flow to the muscle
  • Increased muscle protein synthesis from more cellular hydration
  • Increased water retention allowing for more leverage during lifts

Overall, there are many muscle and performance benefits due to improved energy conversion from creatine.

Creatine Supplementation Side Effects On Hair

To start, creatine supplements are proven to be safe.

However, there are some things you should be aware of when taking creatine. These things will not apply to most people.

Hair Thinning

When it comes to hair, creatine can potentially cause decreased hair production or complete loss of hair follicles. Although there is very little proof of this happening.

The reason why hair loss might happen is because of increased 5-alpha-reductase conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

Being realistic, if this was actually going to be an issue, you would have already seen signs of androgenetic alopecia or male pattern baldness.

Honestly, if you have experienced hair loss, you are probably going to lose your hair anyways. We think you might as well get fit and be bald. It looks cooler.

But, for those that do want to protect their hair and use creatine at the same time. There are treatment options such as minoxidil or laser hair caps.

Try out one of the best laser hair caps: Kiierr 272 Premier MD Review

Key Point

Creatine is highly studied, effective, and one of the safest supplements.

The health benefits of creatine are huge in addition to the benefits in the gym when it comes to performing and building muscle.

Can Creatine Expire?

Absolutely not! 

Creatine is one of the most stable compounds known to man and it is virtually impossible for it to expire. 

The only way creatine could possibly expire is if it was exposed to extreme heat or UV light, but even then it would only degrade slightly. 

So why not take advantage of all the benefits creatine has to offer and supplement with it regularly? It’s safe, effective, and very affordable.

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Putting It All Together

There are so many benefits from creatine to not want to take it. It is a game changer if you are serious about making strides in the gym.

Creatine helps improve performance and increases muscle growth. In addition, it helps with cognition and joint protection.

When it comes to side effects, the jury is still out. There is limited evidence on whether creatine can cause problems like hair loss.

But, we think hair thinning caused by creatine is overblown and you might have had male pattern hair loss already. If you are in this camp, you might as well be ripped and bald. It is more attractive.

Overall, there are a large number of benefits of this dietary supplement and very little drawbacks to justify missing out on improving yourself.

Fact Checked by our Director of Dermatology – We know that understanding how your skin and hair work can seem scary, so my team and I devote our time to thoroughly researching every single topic and product we write about. We hope you find our reviews helpful and informative.

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