What is DHI?
More than 85% of men have thinning hair by age 50. More than 50% of women will also experience a noticeable amount of hair loss in their lifetime.
Several types of HT surgeries have been developed to help regrow lost hair. Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE) are the two most common techniques.
During FUT, a surgeon cuts a strip of hair from the back of your scalp and extracts individual hair follicles. During FUE, a surgeon removes follicles directly from your scalp. In both surgeries, the follicles are implanted into bald area of your scalp.
Direct hair implantation (DHI) is a modification of the FUE technique created by the company DHI Global Medical Group.
In FUE, a surgeon manually cuts channels in your scalp before implanting hair follicles. During DHI, they use a specialized pen-shaped tool that can do both at the same time.
How direct hair implantation works
DHI is a modified version of FUE hair implantation and follows a similar procedure. Your surgeon will remove hair follicles from a part of your scalp, usually the back of your head, and implant them into balding areas. These hair follicles will eventually grow new hairs.
Here’s what you can generally expect during the procedure:
- Your surgeon will shave your head and apply local anesthesia to numb it.
- The surgeon will extract hair follicles from the back of your head using a tool with a fine tip.
- The hair follicles will be loaded into a pen-shaped tool and implanted into the balding part of your scalp.
- The surgeon will apply an antibiotic cream and apply a bandage to all sites.
FUE and DHI surgeries generally take about 8 hours to complete, but the exact time can vary depending on the number of hair follicles being transplanted. It can take 12 to 18 months to see the full results of the surgery.
