  Cosmological singularities are often discussed by means of a gradient
expansion that can also describe, during a quasi-de Sitter phase, the
progressive suppression of curvature inhomogeneities. While the inflationary
event horizon is being formed the two mentioned regimes coexist and a uniform
expansion can be conceived and applied to the evolution of spatial gradients
across the protoinflationary boundary. It is argued that conventional arguments
addressing the preinflationary initial conditions are necessary but generally
not sufficient to guarantee a homogeneous onset of the conventional
inflationary stage.
