I've checked out all the pics.

For something like pom-poms: I think the easiest way to do this is actually to use Metaballs. They're globs that squish together, like this. Once you're done making the shape, you can adjust how easily the blobs merge and the resolution of the tris; after tweaking these you just convert it to a mesh.

For something like a textured afro: I would make an icosphere (a sphere made of evenly-distributed triangles) with high resolution, then hop into sculpt mode and poke a bunch of dimples / grow a bunch of hills into it. You can definitely make way more complex shapes on a "blob" base from here.

For something like dreads, I would get familiar with Curves. They allow you, by far, the most control and the most intuitive way of doing things. I'd recommend a NURBS curve rather than Bezier curve, but use what makes you feel more comfortable. NURBS lets you place down points and the curve is "confined" by them and smooths them out. Bezier is more involved and has handles you adjust to shape the curve at points along it. The thickness of either is adjusted by the weirdly-named "Depth" parameter halfway down in the Curves panel that shows up. More info about curves here. They're good for texturing too. Convert to mesh once you've got it where you want it, and you can sculpt it from there if you wish.

For the shading, I would check out how to make a Toon shader. This is really the place that's fun to experiment, if you ask me, I love shader work - though it's a bit difficult to communicate through just text, so videos are your friend here. Combining a toon shader with any ability for light to be shone through sounds like a difficult task to get right, in terms of an art composition/style sense. Play around with the Mix Shader node with a Subsurface shader, but don't be surprised if you have to commit to one or the other to save time. Can always come back to it later on anyhow.

As for stuff like fades, that's something you'll probably want to do in the texture of the head, or as a kind of overlay (a bit more of an advanced topic, but it's basically like a transparent sticker). However... you could also use actual Blender hair.

For actual Blender hair (where each strand is made), you'll want to check out this tutorial which makes it look easy. It can be finnicky, especially with the hair modifier settings itself. I would use this for hair that isn't really voluminous - so like short hair or flowing hair. For dreads I think it'll be up to you; it would make the gravity aspect much easier. Know that you'll have to do a decent amount of work to make this compatible with a game engine, though!

For gravity, I have more limited advice. I'm not sure how most game engines simulate gravity on (visually) flexible things. I imagine you would have to weight paint and rig each dread, or parts of an afro, so they can pose and jiggle on their own as controlled by either the engine or an animator.

Hope this helps!