My DH wears one hearing aid after he lost almost all his hearing in one ear following a bout of labrynthitis at the end of last year.
He chose to get the best one technology wise including the hearing loop function despite it being slightly bigger because he cared more about function than looks. He did consider the in ear ones but they are always a step behind technology-wise. In my opinion his hearing aid is still tiny despite it being one of the bigger ones.
He is 33 with very little hair and has embraced it. You can see the hearing aid from the back where it sits behind his ear but it's barely noticeable from the front (a tiny clear tube going from behind his ear into the ear canal). The bit in the hearing aid is moulded to his ear (they take a cast of your ear and make the hearing piece to fit) as he tried the generic domes and they didn't work well for him. If he had hair, especially long hair, it wouldn't be noticeable. He went for black (the bit behind his ear is black) rather than skin colour because it looks more modern and actually the audiologist said a lot of people are being more bold with it now, women going for the brighter colours etc more like an accessory. My DH and I have always said we don't understand why having a hearing aid holds more stigma than wearing glasses, countless people wear glasses and think nothing of it even though they are far more visible and have more of an impact on your look. It doesn't make sense. We think a lot of younger people (think age 40+) need hearing aids but don't have them because of the stigma (and probably also because of the cost), or don't even realise because they are a bit less common than glasses.
He did get a top level hearing aid on the NHS (they have him one they wouldn't usually give on the NHS as they basically didn't give him the treatment he needed when he initially lost the hearing, long story but basically they were trying to stop him from suing by giving him a good hearing aid). However the NHS one was an Oticon one and for what he needs it for (he's a lecturer) the Phonak ones are better (have a look as different brands are better for different things, he's done a lot of research). His single hearing aid was around £2000 so you'd obviously have to double that for two.
If you are still working age you should definitely do an Access to Work application through the government website. I think my DH got lucky with the lady who did his assessment, they fully paid for his new Phonak hearing aid, and are looking at getting him some of the Roger accessories to go with it. The idea is it's cheaper for them to spend a few grand doing that than if he were to say he can't work due to disability and the govt have to fork out benefits to him for the rest of his life. It took a while to go through but it was quicker than the NHS and he got a free really good hearing aid from it.
A lot of private places such as Boots and Specsavers offer a 60 day money back guarantee type deal so if you try a particular hearing aid for a couple of months and aren't getting on with it you can return it.
Sorry that's an extremely long post my DH has just had a lot of experience with different hearing aid the last year so thought it might be useful for you.