What to expect from the DHI method, What is the DHI procedure, DHI method, Disadvantages of Direct Hair Transplant Method, direct hair implantation, DHI transplant, Follicular Unit Extraction

What to expect from the DHI method?

• What is the DHI procedure?
• What to expect from the DHI method? What are the benefits?
• The Whole Truth: Disadvantages of Direct Hair Transplant Method
  - Discomfort and Stress
  - Graft Survival
  - Multiuser Method
  - Damage to Hair Grafts and Roots
  - Direction and Angle of Hair Growth

What is the DHI procedure

DHI - direct hair implantation: a new method of hair restoration?

Speaking of hair transplantation and its methods, the business regularly "gives birth" to a number of clinics to compete with well-known and world-famous doctors, presenting their own developments. A new marketing strategy is often actively introduced to compensate for an existing lack of competitiveness. The abbreviation "DHI" (Direct Hair Implant), implies direct hair implantation, and provokes a wide variety of opinions.

We would like to clarify the whole situation and shed light on all points of hair transplantation with the above method.

What to expect from the DHI method?

DHI-supporting clinics and doctors often promise the most natural and successful results with hair transplants performed using the direct hair transplant technique. According to them, DHI allows full control over the direction of growth, implies the shortest recovery time, higher density and, above all, the highest growing profitability in the business. All that has to be achieved with this method is the direct transfer of the extracted hair follicles from the donor area to the recipient area (hair planting area) and ensure the blood supply as quickly as possible.

The DHI method is under the scrutiny of all who practice the modern FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) technique, which is actually performed by almost all hair surgeons in the hair transplant industry.

As in the case of FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) method, hair follicles (grafts) will be individually extracted from the patient's donor area (direct hair implantation) and allow the extracted grafts to be immediately transferred to the bald area. This is why a number of the promises made with DHI are mainly related to the FUE process. In regards to the extraction process, many clinicians use micromotors or other motorized devices offered by numerous brands to increase workload, avoid fatigue and save work time. In many clinics, micromotors are also used to compensate for the lack of practical experience and personal  skills of trichologist surgeons .

Thus, clinics and trichologists performing DHI hair transplants are among the pros during the extraction process performed by FUE (follicular unit extraction) to be "ahead" of outdated methods such as the FUT method.

What is the Direct Hair Transplant (DHI) procedure?

The DHI method involves dividing the hair follicles after extraction to fill in several small implants. DHI pen, also called CHOI Implanter:

It has a plunger device and a thin cannula at the tip to prepare the incisions and place the grafts at the recipient site at the same time. All the innovation that is presented in the DHI method is part of a regular procedure that combines the extraction process with the implantation of grafts.

What to expect from the DHI method? What are the real benefits?

To begin with, there is not much difference between DHI and FUE, since FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) is the foundation for hair transplantation using the DHI method when removing hair follicles from the donor area. The extracted grafts will be immediately sorted and prepared for the transfer process. Each DHI pen will then be filled with hair follicles to make incisions and move the grafts to the bald area . Patients should be aware that during the entire hair transplant procedure, every two parts of the head will be constantly under medical supervision: both the donor area and the recipient area.

Hair follicles extracted by DHI will be without blood supply for a much shorter time than with other transplant methods.

The Whole Truth: Advantages and Disadvantages of the DHI Method

- Discomfort and Stress
Patients who opt for DHI hair transplantation will be subject to discomfort and increased stress as a result of the fact that several areas of their head will be under medical supervision at once. Local anesthesia will be needed for both parts of the head at the same time. In order to immediately/simultaneously move the hair follicles to the landing site, the trichologist surgeon must instantly switch from the extraction process to the transfer process. That is why in many clinics, medical assistants are often involved in the transplant process, and are not always great professionals.

– Graft Survival
Based on the latest scientific research ( FUE Europe ), there is no conclusive evidence that the survival of grafts removed from the patient's donor area can deteriorate if the hair follicles are properly preserved according to medical standards for their transplantation. In most cases, this is an extraction process and the chosen method is responsible for a higher or lower number of grafts in a hair transplant .

That is why there is no medical need for a method of simultaneous extraction and implantation when using the DHI Implanter. The blood supply of human grafts will be sufficiently guaranteed with regular FUE hair transplants and if the procedure is performed in stages with fewer vaccinations. After 500 or 800 grafts have been successfully removed from the donor area, the trichologist surgeon will be able to start the transfer process and follow the procedure to the end, concentrating on one task.

– Multi-user method
In case doctors simultaneously perform the process of extracting and planting grafts, the number of transplanted grafts during the daily procedure can be significantly lower than with the FUE hair transplant method . The DHI method is extremely time consuming and stressful for the trichologist surgeon, which can result in a significant workload.

Those with sufficient experience and individual skills to successfully perform manual hair transplants will soon notice the limits of the daily workload. This is why most DHI clinics use a micromotor for the extraction process to increase the speed of graft extraction. In addition, physicians will have to rely on extended medical staff to accurately perform hair follicle implantation, which will increase costs for the patient.

- Disruption of grafts by the DHI device
Hair follicles can be damaged during the use of the DHI pen (Choi-Implanter) by the surgeon if they are performed without special concentration, precision and experience. This may also affect the final result and survival of the grafts. To be honest, DHI needs years of experience and training, as opposed to unfulfilled promises.

If we compare both methods, then there is not much difference in the healing time. It may seem rather absurd to claim that the use of the Choi-Implanter (DHI-pen) can result in higher density or reduced patient recovery times. Because the healing and regeneration of multiple layers of skin does not depend on using a pen instead of thin, precise scalpels, it is likely to be a successful marketing strategy that allows businesses to promote the DHI pen, which is only used by a minority of trichologists.

Just look at the speed with which inexperienced doctors perform DHI transplants. Is it possible to expect a high survival rate and the absence of injured hair from such work?

Practical and many years of experience, personal skills and mastery of the trichologist have always been the cornerstone of success in order to provide outstanding results in hair transplantation. The end result of the graft cannot be affected by the use of a graft pen directly into the bald area.

A large number of established trichologists in this business still continue to prepare incisions through the lateral fissure or cannula without the need for DHI implantation in order to implant grafts at the same time, as this can cause stress and damage in handling the follicles. In terms of scarring, there is no substantiated evidence that using the Choi-Implanter can result in less visible or invisible scarring.

– Direction and angle of hair growth
Both the direction and angle of growth of the grafts will necessarily depend on the exact placement of the hair follicles. Unnatural manifestations and poor outcomes have typically been noted by physicians with little or no experience and with numerous low cost graft instrument providers . There is doubt that devices such as the DHI implant can help prevent disastrous results, as it may attract more unskilled doctors to perform hair transplants with an implanted pen without the necessary experience or skills. Years of experience and practical skills are essential requirements to achieve natural and aesthetic results in hair transplantation .

At the moment, only a small number (less than 10%) of noted trichologists practice the DHI method using the Choi-Implanter. Clinics using the DHI method need training and advanced training. Since there is no proven benefit from using the DHI pen in hair transplantation, this is just a marketing hype. A longer process, as well as more stress, is more likely to result in potential damage during graft extraction and placement with DHI.