The never ending quest for nice hair

[OneFrenchEgg]

Omg when will I ever learn.
Just bought the entire Elivive gloss range thing - not a jot of difference just slightly less soft at the end of it.
In my quest to achieve nice looking hair (baseline - shoulder length, horrible curls mixed with spirals and flat bits, mainly grey) I have spent a small fortune:

Most of the local high street 'curl' range
A heated curler
GHDs
Two types of hot brush
A shark hair dryer with various attachments (still boxed)
Only curls range (only thing that seems to work)
Gel to achieve a 'clean girl' aesthetic
Various combs
A silk pillow case
Random towels that promise the earth

Now I'm thinking maybe some highlights (again) to blend the grey

Hmm sounds like you need a specialist curly cut where they treat your hair and teach you how to take care of it

Yes but I've tried and they all promise but never deliver. It seems to be an American thing on my curly pages.
Recommendations would be great.
Currently aiming to grow it out so it's waves not curls

There's an excellent one is east London called curl talk
But in the mean time I'll write out my curly routine for you. Hope it helps but there is alot of experimentation based on the best products for you

First wash your hand in the shower as normal then tip your whole head upside down and then massage in the conditioner
When you're finished and rinse out the condition upside down and brush your hair upside down so away from your scalp.
Then while it still sopping wet squeeze out the excess moisture and add in a leave-in conditioner.
Then use a gel a Curly gel and gently squish your hair upwards so that your forming the curls - not too vigorously - just gently
then when you're done with that you can wrap your hair either in a T-shirt or a microfiber towel to remove the excess moisture
then you can either leave it to air dry or if you want tighter curls can you use a diffuser or what I found is a game changer is a Sati hair bonnet that you attach to the Head dryer.

the other thing you can try is like a deep conditioning mask something like oliplex or k-18

A lot of this is experimentation with product and techniques and it takes a lot of time to get the curls that you want and also just be aware that curly hair is a lot of work it doesn't look like it but it's actually a lot of work for it to look good.

@Howtonamechange thank you, that's pretty similar to the only curls routine (with some additional steps I can try).
I've been on a quest for years to get nice hair, I'd love to wake up with long straight hair one day !

Try products from Only Curls, they have a loads of tutorials and you can find a proper curly hair specialist through them, who do curl by curl cut.

My hair was shit when using products from the high street because a lot of ingredients didn't agree with my hair.

Also reducing the amount of hair washing helps massively, since washing every 4 days, my hair is less dry and frizzy.

Only using a cotton t shirt to wrap my hair in and a silk bonnet and night has helped too.

I have loads of grey coming through too, have been advised to only do semi-permanent dye if going down that route.