Many thanks for the advice - very helpful and very appreciated.

I'm glad to hear the unconvincing look when just "plopped-on-head" out of the box is to be expected. I was pretty disheartened when I tried it. Mailing them off for a cut may be a good idea. If nothing else, it'll give me time to practice things like knot bleaching, etc before I take the plunge.

The 2 pieces I bought already were both custom - the colour match was very good, the density seemed too thick on both, despite being 60 & 65%. I'm guessing they can look a little thicker before cut-in/preparation(?)

Clips sound like a great idea - I'll certainly try them and see if I can get a sound match.

With regards to how well I can expect to look in those first 2 weeks, I guess I'm just looking to convince myself that they *can* look sufficiently natural to be worthwhile. Being noticably a "wig guy" is, I guess like most people on this board, a pretty bad fear of mine. I've done a reasonable amount of research, but I'm still uncertain as to how convincing I can make it look. Ideally, I'd love to hand the keys over to someone who knows what they're doing the first time. I'm just unsure where to find the right person, and I haven't found any non-mail order companies that I trust to get it right. If anyone has suggestions, I'd be appreciative.

Again, many thanks folks - I really appreciate it.