That last part especially. My hair is incredibly unruly. It's curly, thick, and traps moisture for hours if it gets wet. I usually at least pick it apart with my hands and try to keep it in loose coils, but a lot of the time i don't take care of it or myself in general, and the knots that form even in just a couple days are incredibly painful to get rid off and get very dirty even if I'm staying inside. This isn't the kind of hair dreads are made for.

Also, norsefolk/celts/whichever pre-white north european culture people always bring up didn't have dreadlocks. They had braids. Braids that were maintained obsessively because, again, north european hair mats and tangles without care. Other west european cultures actually wrote screeds about how salty they were about the heathens practicing basic hygiene, fearing their wives would leave them for barbarians who didn't smell like shit or have cowlicks that you could balance a bowl on.