Choi implanter pen
A spring-loaded pen with a hollow needle that holds a single graft and implants it while creating the channel. Available in multiple needle diameters matched to graft size; the defining instrument of DHI.
The Choi implanter is a spring-loaded pen with a hollow, bevelled needle at its tip. A technician loads a single graft into the needle; the operator places the needle at the chosen angle against the scalp, advances it to depth, and releases the graft as the needle withdraws — creating the channel and implanting in one motion. It is the defining instrument of DHI, and its ancestor was developed at Kyungpook National University in Korea, from which the “Choi” name comes.
Diameter is the core specification. Needles come in a range of sizes matched to graft calibre: fine needles for single-hair grafts at the hairline, larger ones for multi-hair units. Using one needle size for everything forces either oversized channels for small grafts or crush-loading of large ones, which is why a serious setup fields several pens in several diameters, loaded in parallel and handed off in rotation through the session.
Quality lives in small tolerances: the needle’s grind and polish, the spring’s consistency after hundreds of actuations, how smoothly the plunger releases tissue rather than dragging it. Cheap pens fail in ways that surface as bleeding, popped grafts and slowed placement rhythm. Evaluate pens per batch — needle sharpness drifts between lots even within one brand — and budget them as consumables with a service plan, not as a one-time purchase.
The pen rewards training. Loading without damaging the graft is a skill measured in weeks of practice; placement rhythm between operator and loading team takes longer. A clinic adopting implanters should plan the team training alongside the purchase order — the instrument only performs as well as the choreography around it.
Adoption usually happens in stages: teams start with single-hair grafts along the hairline, where the pen’s angle control pays most and graft loading is least demanding, then extend to multi-hair units as loading skill and rhythm build. Reprocessing discipline belongs in the same conversation — needles are the wear part, pens must be cleaned and sterilised between cases per the manufacturer’s instructions, and a written per-session count of pens, needles and failures is how a clinic notices quality drift early.
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