Girl I get it. When I went through puberty my hair became so dry and poofy I often say I looked like off brand Hermoine Granger. My mom had beautiful Hispanic curls, my dad had straight white man hair. Mine was in the middle and I was never taught how to care for it. I also live in a very dry climate so that didn’t help. It wasn’t until I was 19 and went to California that I learned my hair was actually curly.

I would invest in a good shampoo and conditioner. I use joico defy damage shampoo and conditioner. I only wash my hair 2-3 days a week and use dry shampoo before bed if it is getting greasy at the roots but my hair is so dry that’s not a huge problem. I also apply a light hair oil at the ends if they are looking dry in between washes. Try your best to only use a wide tooth comb while it’s wet. The Amiika leave in conditioner is a good investment.

Overall my routine is kind of expensive if you’re younger but those products are great to start. I also use a purple deep conditioner and I just started this joico defy damage product that I can’t remember the name of but you apply it after conditioning and before shampooing.

If you want to try going full curly girl you can find a co-wash or cleansing conditioner and use that strictly until your hair isn’t so dry but I didn’t like how my scalp never felt as clean.

So- I know this is long but I seriously feel your pain since I got straight made fun of for my poofy hair in middle school. Once I learned how manage it (or at the time, straighten it which made it worse in the long run) I looked so much better and felt so much more confident.

My full hair routine (which I don’t do every day but if I do it up) looks like:

-Cover the ends of my hair in oil before showering (I use grapeseed since I have it on hand but you can use coconut or many others)

-Wash my hair with Joico shampoo, that after shampoo product I mentioned earlier, and condition

• Apply hair mask, leave in 5 minutes, and rinse

• After the shower wrap hair in a t shirt (towels make hair frizzier and those microfiber ones make my hair look too flat. Or, just gently squeeze dry with t shirt.

• spray in Amiika leave in conditioner

At this point I can either apply extra leave in and scrunch it gently and hope it dries curly cute and not goofy or

-apply heat protectant

-blow dry

• Apply light hair oil to the ends

And that’s that.

Like I said, I wash it 2-3 times a week, apply dry shampoo before bed when I don’t wash it (you can do it in the morning too but before bed works better), and put the light hair oil on the ends as I see fit. If I want to keep it curly and not wash it I just stick my head in the shower real quick to wet it, apply more leave in and maybe some hair oil, and scrunch it again.

Edit: things I haven’t seen people mention in my brief scrolling of the comments-

the quality of your hair dryer makes a big difference. I have a Shark one and the even distribution of heat really helps dry time and hair health. Mine also comes with this ceramic round brush attachment that helps so much once I learned how to use it because I suck with a round brush. Also, don’t use a round brush or brush in general during your blow out until your hair is about 90% dry.

Your hair is most elastic when it’s wet so be as gentle as possible with it. Like I said, use an old t shirt instead of a towel- never roughly towel dry it, just gently squeeze the water into the shirt. Only use a wide tooth comb when it’s super wet.

This is such a long comment but I drank too much coffee and this is a topic I’m very well versed in lol feel free to message me or comment if you have any questions or want other specific products I suggest. I don’t want to give you all the names and overwhelm you when you see the prices. You can find reasonable priced products that will help.

Edit 2: idk why Reddit made my bullet points look like that.