Update Continued: Budding

Did I guesstimate that budding would begin in a couple of months? Well I think it's started already! I could be wrong but they look an awful lot like my first set of buds, starting at pretty much the same time, I've just noted, so I'm going with it. I was quite unsure sure at first because I didn't retwist after shampooing my hair but I re-coloured recently and noticed several buds when I went through my hair. Most of them seem to have formed where the new growth meets the two strand twist which I first thought was just unravelling but I tried to pull a twist apart and it didn't budge.

Buds: From what I can tell a bud is a swollen bulge that feels somewhat thicker and firmer (but still spongy) than the rest of the loc. They can start at different points in the loc but most commonly towards the middle. Towards the end is common if your locs are particularly short to start out with. They usually form between month 2 and 6.

Now close-ups of locs and buds in particular aren't easy to photograph but I tried to capture a few of them for you:

this is what I hope is a bud on one of my 18 month old locs.
I say hope because my new growth is
now over an inch (as seen by the black roots)
and it hasn't started loc'ing yet.

this is a bud just barely forming. It's not visible
but if you were here you'd feel where it will grow in
(the frizz near the centre)

and my twists are now irreversible from the root

they appear quite distinctly in silhouette here

So far, in almost six weeks I've experienced:

Shrinkage^

Frizz/Fuzzies^

Budding^

And currently all three are happening at the same time i.e. shrinkage started before budding but shrinkage hasn't stopped even though budding has begun and of course frizz will be with us throughout.

For some reason the developing (^macro) stages of baby locs are much clearer to see in these two strand twists than they seemed to be in my comb coils. I'm sure it's due to a number of differing factors including the additional length, and being more informed/prepared and, possibly the starting method too.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

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