I think if the topic is hair, you can't help but take a person's ethnic background into consideration as that's often why their hair is the way it is!
'm Jewish, and my entire family and quite a few of my friends all have hair that's just so difficult to manage. Dry, course, thick and frizzy without an ounce of shine, not a good combination. My mother had ultra fine, frizzy curly hair and she combated this by going to the hairdresser twice a week.
When I was a kid it grew vertically and I had a giant afro until I was 6 and then she used to drab me to the hairdressers too!
Over the years I have tried everything to tame it. When I lived in Brixton I used to go to the Afro-Caribbean hairdressers and they were great but for some reason, I stopped, I think it was because my hair smelt ever so slightly singed the whole time :(
I think I've tried every product on the market. Frizz-ease just made my hair feel slightly greasy and din't tame the frizz. I was really excited to read about no-frizz and got my friend in LA to send me some but that wasn't any good and made my hair feel awful.
I've not had the Japanese straightening treatment because I colour my hair.
For me, the only thing that has come close to working is a Brazilian blow-dry. I never expected miracles and knew there was no way it would keep on my hair for 2 -3 months, indeed, I had it done on the 15th August and it looked good for less than a month, so much so that I bought some product off Ebay and have done it myself, and it looks and feels great again. So I'm happy with this compromise, especially as I know it's £20 as opposed to the £120 I paid in the first place!
I'd definitely recommend it, that is if you just want to reduce the amount of frizz. It won't straighten it massively but it will look, feel and behave better.
Addtionally I also use either Ojon or Moroccan oil treatments and they're great too, my hair always looks/behaves better afterwards.