Managing post-HT ugly duckling phase

[mrcombover]

I'm wondering what advice people might have on managing the 'ugly duckling' phase. I had 1800 grafts placed in the frontal half from an FUT procedure 4 days ago with a reputable doctor recommended on this site. The doctor shaved my entire recipient area, which has caused some anxiety as I will have no hairline whatsoever when the grafts fall out.

Fortunately, to an extent, I had a 'long combover' style before the HT--I grew my hair long at the sides and top (minimal crown loss so far), so I anticipate having to comb my hair forward over the recipient area. I will probably try to use hair wax to hold the hairs forward, and toppik on the combed-forward hairs to hide the bare scalp underneath. Is this a sensible plan for the next 6 months while waiting for the HT to grow in? Anything I should be careful about? I'd love to hear other peoples' 'ugly duckling' stories and any advice they might have.

More about me: I'm East Asian and in my mid-20s. I might post some pics later but the shave job I got is similar to this guy's: http://www.rahalhairtransplant.com/m...catable/day-7/

Problems I anticipate having to solve:

1) Wind. I work in an office but step out for lunch with coworkers several times a week. Should I play it save and wear a cap every time I do this? Have people had success with using styling wax/gel of some sort to hold their hair in place when the wind blows?

2) Transplanted hairs sticking out where my comb-forward can't hide them. My comb-forward might not be able to hide the sides of my transplanted hairline. I go back to work in about a week and a half (took two weeks off), and I've read that the transplanted hairs will only be just starting to fall off then. Would it be OK to just shave those transplanted hairs since they will be falling out anyway?

I'm also curious about the timeline for native hair returning in the recipient area. My recipient area was shaved and transplanted because it had thinned a fair bit, but was still useful for keeping a low contrast between my combover and scalp. I presume some of those hairs will not be coming back if they were far gone enough. But some of them might just be 'shocked' from the procedure, and if so, how long should I expect before they start growing back? And is it possible that some of those shaved hairs escaped shock loss? If my recipient grows back somewhat, perhaps I'll be able to use Toppik to lessen the contrast between the longer hairs I comb forward and my scalp.