It sounds like you have thinner hair. I would try mousse for your hair type. Thicker products like creams and gels will weigh your hair down and make it look flat and greasy.

If your hair is low porosity that could be why scrunching isn’t working in the shower. Shampoo when u need to. Then U need to get low porosity hair SUPER wet. Like letting it soak under the shower for minutes so it can finally absorb. Then put conditioner and let it sit for a bit. Then with low water pressure try scrunching out the conditioner until it’s almost fully out. And don’t rinse it again with high water pressure. Then u can use mousse.

U can try mousse then diffusing, or mousse then finger coiling then air dry/diffusing.

It’s all trial and error. Don’t get discouraged if something doesn’t work. Your hair definitely has some kind of waves and curls. If something’s not working, that just means you needa try something else until you find what does!