Repost as my post got accidentally taken down for non-relevant details - I've been told my whole life I have nice little waves and really thick hair, recently realised I may have wavy hair curl pattern and I've been trying TikTok routines and tips and it still ends up looking horrible and frizzy or all the curls disappear by the morning. I tried the below routine last night and waited until it was 90% dry, then flipped my hair into a loose bun with a silk (?) scrunchie at the top of my head and slept and woke up to a mess the next day.
Clarifying - STEAMBASE Tea Tree Scalp Water Scaler (Used x2 a week, live in a hardwater region)
Shampoo + Conditioner - Fino Premium Touch
Hair Mask - Dove Damage Rescue
(No curl cream - tried my boyfriend's one before and nothing came out of it)
Bowl method until hair becomes 'slimy seaweed' and it has the curls when wet
Mousse - Function of Beauty Zero Gravity
Gel - Eco Gel
+ The Ordinary Multi-Peptide Hair Serum (for scalp use)
Oil - (the next morning) Mise En Scene Perfect Serum Styling
Prayer hands used for mousse and gel. I've diffused before but it eliminates all the curls even when using the pixie method or hovering, air drying leads to the below pictures. I don't know what else to do because nothing leads to the nice gel casted curls I've seen on the internet, and not doing anything (see last pic) either ends up looking good or looking very very terrible leaving crunchy dry hair even with oil and hair mask. I was gifted the Ouai travel size wave spray and I don't really see any results from it if I use it to refresh :(
I have (I think) high porosity hair as it's really damaged with cuticles sticking out but it doesn't sink instantly in the water test, and it's been through heat and bleaching before. Please help me out! Any help is really appreciated, everyone in my family has coarse hair but has a very very short haircut or just lets it be frizzy as is so I've never been taught anything. Thank you!
Edit - my goal is to be able to maintain the frizz, maybe strengthen my weak wave pattern, and not have a 'maybe it'll be non-frizzy today' gamble every morning, I usually just tie my hair back because my hair is a lot to deal with as a med student!
Picture of my hair from last night trying the routine again at around 70% dry hair
Picture from this morning after using oil to 'break' gel cast
Pic of my natural hair without any styling or anything from 2 months ago
