The scars will look terrible in the first weeks after surgery, but will heal fast by themselves. I did try one tube of some kind of scar gel on my second TKR knee, but it didn’t seem to make much difference in speed of healing for me, so discontinued. Both knees now have only a faint hairline scar down the front of the knee, not noticeable unless you look for it up close. Wearing shorts will not scare anyone!