Hi Paul! Thank you so much for your response! This already cleared up several of the questions I had in mind! I'll definitely keep that in mind to go shorter with the hair length. (So sorry about the photos - I will edit the first post and include the style shots!)

So a topper should do the trick then? And I can try to blend the topper with my natural hair? I figured the sides & back were still coming in so thick I could use that to my benefit and not have to do a full system. That's good news to me!