Hi everyone! I’m hoping you can give me some advice because I’m a little lost with my hair.

I used to blow-dry my hair regularly and always brush it when it was dry. Even though my hair is generally healthy, I would always have a lot of frizz. The only real issue I have is some split ends, but apart from that my hair feels healthy.  
I’ve always known that my hair is naturally wavy to slightly curly, so recently I decided to actually start following a wavy hair routine instead of fighting my natural texture.  
However, I’m still not really happy with how my hair looks and I feel like I’m doing something wrong.

My routine is currently:  
I wet my hair thoroughly when refreshing it  
I apply Bali Curls Curl Cream  
I gently scrunch my hair with a cotton T-shirt  
Then I either let it air dry or use a diffuser (photo 1)  
Once it’s completely dry, I use a little Olaplex oil  
I also tried using a strong-hold gel (Balea Crunch Gel) after the curl cream, but for some reason I really disliked how my hair looked with it. It made my hair look very stringy and created lots of thin, separated clumps (photo 2).  
Without the gel, I actually prefer how my hair looks, but I still feel like my waves look frizzy, dry and not very defined.  
When I sleep, I usually put my hair into a loose braid.  
Do you have any tips for me? Should I be using different products, changing the way I apply them, using more/less product, or changing my drying technique?  
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people with a similar hair texture! 

What am I doing wrong with my wavy hair? Looking for advice!