Gigi- is your hair completely dry, when you straighten it?
Are you using a straightener with ceramic plates?

I used to have wavy hair before I had DD- I found a serum on the mid lengths and ends would make my hair soft and manageable- PPS make a nice one, you only need a really small pea sized amount.

Also agree with a PP-don't brush your hair- combing it reduces the upset to curly hair.
Try an Afro comb when your hair is wet or dry.

Use a lot less shampoo and conditioner.
A lot of the time curly hair is oily on the scalp and dry on the ends- the oil can't slide down the hair shaft as easily with curly hair- use conditioner on your ends only.

Find a length that suits your hair- my sisters curly hair looks kinky when she wears it long, but when she wears it at her shoulders, it looks amazing.... Full off body and bounce.

On a side note- I do an at home Keratin treatment on my neighbors hair every 3 months, we get it on the Internet- but you can buy it in Priceline.
It's super easy to do yourself.
i am using the straightener when hair is very nearly completely dry.
i shampoo and use an afro comb, then towel dry with a microfibre sports hair towel (the sort that dry your hair faster).

i blowdry the fringe before it kinks, let the rest air dry, then straighten the rest (if i have the opportunity) with a very cheap hair straightener, it might have ceramic plates, not sure. It cost very little.

i hate using the straightener, for so many years i avoided using heat on my hair.

i have so many serums and Moroccan oil things that i have bought to try.

My hair is nearly to my shoulders now, i get a haircut whenever i spy a Daily Deal type thing in my area (around every six months - some of these are for very suss places, some have been great. It's a lucky dip. i would love to find an "experienced stylist" who knows fluffy hair and could thin mine out for me. I feel like all the hairdressers i end up with, are just glued to their straightener, have no idea how spending heaps of time on my hair is not going to happen for me, so even when i ask for a low maintenance hairstyle, they STILL give me one that requires DAILY straightening and fussing about.

ANgel pants, mention of layers etc, haven't heard of that before. I tried bob cuts (all one length) and it really didn't suit me, so i usually do ask for some grading/layering - do you think that's the problem?

AFter reading all these posts, i think i will lean more towards COMBING my hair, and give the brush a rest. I don't want to look like a model, i just want to be presentable outside in the world of people. I want to stop embarrassing bilby in public. She is very much noticing how well presented, the other mummies at school pickups/drop offs are.

i rarely put my hair in a ponytail now, feel so self conscious with the other parents, last thing i want to do is expose my sticking out ears AS WELL, as my fluffy, woolly sticking out hair. i wish i could walk around with a paperbag over my head.

There's some infomercial hair product, that straightens and curls your hair at the same time, once only sold on tv, but now sold in big w as well. Does anyone know the thing i mean? and more importantly, has anyone tried it out? wish i could remember the name.

i'm curious, if i went really short, like ears length, would that make things better.

So many older women have shorter hair cuts (which i have avoided, as i realise short hair cuts, mean more freq trips to hairdresser). Do the older women go short, due to woolly hair? I'm about 20 years younger than those women, have always had shoulder or a bit longer (shoulder blade) length hair. I will go short, if i thought that would solve the woolly problem. Need to hide ears, so does that mean, short bob? (which i already have found out, bobs don't work on me, i can't get my hair straight enough for them to sit right), so my hair kinks allover the joint, and bob doesn't even look like a bob.

maybe a wig is the answer - sigh.