I think a lot of the ladies on the BHM board purchased the April lace front.  I don't remember if they thought it was any good or not.

You cut the lace with small sharp scissors, cut very close to the lace without cutting any of the tied in hairs.  One class I took recommended that you cut the front lace with pinking shears (used in sewing, those scissors that cut a zig zag line, not a straight one) because the last thing you want across your forehead is a straight line that may be visible.

As for keeping the lace down, again on BHM, those ladies have talked and talked about that subject backwards and forwards, so you may want to do a search on their  board to see what they find works the best.