hair styles better on damp hair instead of soaking wet, and also only looks good after day one?

Routine post-shower:

Shampoo with any random shampoo, but usually head and shoulders

Sometimes condition with a random conditioner, I guess I would use the Kirkland brand one

Either leave hair dripping wet, or dry off hair until it's still super wet but not dripping

Ouai curl cream everywhere

Combination of Innersense I Create Lift foam and Pattern mousse (a lot of it!), sometimes brush style and sometimes just rake it through

Scrunch

Add Innersense I Create curl memory gel OR I create hold gel, about 6 pumps, glide through hair and scrunch

Diffuse on low heat and low power

Plop until dry

However, ONLY on day one, nothing much happens. It dries curly but not as defined not as voluminous.

I sleep with hair in a very loose high bun.

Day 2 routine, OR this is the routine I do when I washed my hair the day before with zero product and it's dry now, and both have the same results:

Dampen hair with a continuous spray bottle. It's not soaking wet, just wet-ish

A bunch of pattern mousse everywhere, glazed and scrunched

About 5-6 pumps of Innersense I Create Curl Memory OR I create hold gel

Scrunch

Diffuse until I get tired

Plop until dry then scrunch out crunch

This leaves my hair SUPER defined and it lasts forever. I usually wash my hair every 3 days so that means day 2 and day 3 are great.

Does anyone else have this weird issue? Everyone says to style on soaking wet hair, and when I got a curly cut at the salon, she also did it on soaking wet hair and it looked great. But when I do it, I don't get much definition. How do I get the results I want on day one?

Thank you!