How do I know when my avatar is actually appearing the way I want it to? Because it will appear one way on my dashboard, another way on my profile, and I'm all sorts of new kid confused.

It's just a cache issue that causes your HA to update in some places before others. Both places (as well as on the forums) should match if you just wait it out c: In my experience, my sidebar will usually update first

waiting usually works like said. Lately there've been some HA glitches but they should be fixed by now and you can check Problems & Bugs to make sure. If like you're entering a contest and are forgetful or get mixed up easy for some reason today, there is something else you can do.

Try the new Share function on the beta Wardrobe. Make a post with the sCode for that, and then on your Notepad copy and paste the items you think you are wearing and paste all of that underneath. Ask a friend to do a comparison between what's shared and what you pasted, and then also double check by doing a find on each item to see if you get two results for each item.