Steroid hormones are lipid-soluble and can easily pass through the cell membrane to bind with intracellular receptors. This allows them to directly influence gene expression and initiate cellular responses more rapidly than non-steroid hormones, which are typically water-soluble and cannot cross the cell membrane. Non-steroid hormones bind to receptors on the cell surface, triggering a cascade of events inside the cell that takes longer to produce a response. Therefore, steroid hormones generally lead to faster physiological effects compared to non-steroid hormones.