Starting my hair growth journey- any advice?

Most of my hair is just past my shoulders, and I have an undercut that I’m trying to grow out. There’s some breakage because I wear a helmet at work, so I have a halo of frizz where the helmet sits. There’s changes I’ve made since I started focusing on growing it out are:

• started wearing a buff under the helmet
• added a leave in conditioner for wash days
• stopped washing daily and switched to every other day
• stopped towel drying and switched to a cotton tee shirt or hair towel
• started scalp massages before bed
• started using argan oil on the undercut the night before a wash
• started sleeping with a satin bonnet

The only thing I’m still doing that I know is damaging is brushing and styling wet. I wear my hair in braids when I’m working and a ponytail when I’m not, and I always put it back right after the shower. My hair is very thick, even with half of it shaved off, and takes ages to blow dry. Plus, I don’t really want to add more product (heat protector) or use that much heat. And it’s much harder to braid dry. I’d really like to continue doing it wet, but I know it’s not recommended; so my question is- will it really make that much of a difference to switch from styling wet to daily heat? It’s definitely not an option to let it air dry every day, it takes hours and I cannot wake up that early. I also can’t stand wearing it down.

Let me know if you have experience with this! Thanks folks