this may make it a little clearer

#!d:\perl\perl

my %hash;
my %direc;

my $record = { DIR  => 3 };
$hash{'myhash'} = $record;

print $hash{'myhash'},"\n";    ## Prints HASH(0x1b9f0b8)
print $hash{'myhash'}{DIR},"\n"; ## Prints 3

$direc{'this'} = "something";
$direc{'that'} = "another";

#Here we swat the previous value of $hash{'myhash'}
#the previous value of $hash{myhash} ($record) vanishes 

$hash{'myhash'}{DIR} = \%direc;

print $hash{'myhash'}->{DIR}{'this'},"\n"; ## Prints something
print $hash{'myhash'}{DIR}{'this'},"\n";   ## Prints something

print $hash{'myhash'}->{DIR}{'that'},"\n"; ## Prints another

print $hash{'myhash'},"\n";               ## Prints HASH(0x1b9f0b8)
print $hash{'myhash'}{DIR},"\n";           ## Prints HASH(0x1b95778)
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