Buds, Latching, and Curly Qs

I think I found some buds in my hair. Yipeeee! Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't celebrate and panic within the same breath, right? How do I know that those buds are just tangled hair and not embedded lint? Gross! The first one I found had some lint in it, so I've been kind of paranoid ever since. Have I been paranoid to the point where I'll wrap my hair up at night? Of course not. That would make too much sense. I inspected a few more of them and they just look like a tangled mass of hair, but I'm not sure.

I still haven't done a re-ti on my entire head. At this point, the front is beginning to look a bit fuzzy and my roots in the center and back of my head are amazingly thick. I don't want to wait too long, but I'm loving the fullness of the back of my head right now. Well, that and I'm being uber lazy. Something tells me semi-freeforming might be in my future sooner than I thought. I offered to teach one of my guy friends how to do it so I could enlist his help. Knowing him, this would probably last all of one time before he got uppity and decided he wanted to charge me for his services. Nerp! Not gonna happen, buddy.

Some of the Curly Qs on the ends of my hair are beginning to disappear. I will miss them when they're gone. I wonder if I can pick them out after my locs are completely sealed/formed?