I have very curly hair too, only its thin and fine and short! I used to have it straightened when I was a teenager and am glad those days are over! I usually dry my hair naturally or use a diffuser if I'm in a hurry but I try to straighten the top with a brush and the blow dryer after its dry, just to pretend that I'm styling it! If there's a hint of humidity in the air, then that's all for naught.

My hair can get fried in the summer too (probably because I use color on it) and because of the texture, I can never wear a hat in the winter or summer, talk about flathead!

Okay, enough complaining......I don't use a lot of products, but I do like Infusium, its a moisturizer and you put a dollop in and leave it in. Sometimes when my hair gets flat and needs to be wet and fluffed up (only a curly head would know what I mean) I use Infusium with some water and it makes it shiny.

:) my husband has your hair...when I met him, it was about shoulder length, and curled so tight he got the occasional 'sideshow bob' comment from strangers.

within a week of us dating, I discovered something amazing...his hair was actually longer than mine (waist-length at the time) when it was soaking wet.

both of us live for the monthly oilings. I like avacado oil best, he prefers coconut oil (strictly for the smell, he admits) but we'll use grapeseed oil if that's all we have...we tie it into a high ponytail, and saturate the whole tail (the hair nearest your scalp HAS its own share of oils) and go about our sunday...around 2 PM, we'll re-do the last 6 inches, which are older and more dried-out.

in between times, we like the infusium leave-in, and I'm a sucker for the biolage brand intensive glop.

the only other hint is stay away from frizz-busters with silicone... they're the chapstick of the hair care world, and doo more harm than good.

I guess I could try Infusium, although, I really dislike Clairol products.

Oddly enough, even though I have thick hair, Pantene's conditioner to make hair thicker works the best for me. However, I keep searching for better products. Other products leave my hair too soft -- those with curly hair know what I mean.

I can give you recommendations as to what products to try, but you'd need to e-mail me as the list is 4 pages on a Word document.

In the meantime here's some info for you...

Water-soluble silicones are dimethicone copolyl (sp) & PEG-modified dimethicones. These are the only silicones 'good' for your hair.

Drying alcohols are SD-40, 40-B, 23, & Isopropyl, for instance. A couple of the 'good' alcohols are steryl & ceteryl (sp).

The main cleansers of shampoos are ammonium and/or sodium sulfates. They're pretty harsh/drying though.

There are two books full of good information that you could borrow from your library on the subject of curly hair...

Curly Girl by Lorainne (sp) Massey
Curl Talk by Ouidad

And there's a website dedicated to wavy & curly hair...
www.naturallycurly.com

There's a chemist & a shampoo, conditioner, & styling product-maker who post there, plus many other gals who are professed product junkies who've learned by trial & error. There's an ingredients dictionary, curl-411 guide, product lists/guides, articles, etc., on that site. It's free to join.

I LOVE the Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Weightless Anti-Frizz Hair Serum (long name!). I have tried other anti-frizz serums in the past but haven't had the results that I got with this Fructis one. I have wavy/curly hair that I normally blow dry and straighten. Sometimes on the weekend I will just let it air dry. When I put this Fructis serum on and let it air dry I was amazed not to have my normal frizzy hair. I highly recommend it, and it comes in a cute little round bottle. {{gwi:1392906}}

TIGI products have a line of shampoo, conditioners and styling products for curly hair . I love them! I get them at my salon but I'm sure you could do a web search for them.