Low maintenance curls?

Good hair vs Lazy hair

As you can see in the picture my curls can look amazing if I actually do something with them. However I end up being pretty lazy and more often than not it gets frizzy and I pull it back like in the last two pics. Since it so rarely looks good I'm getting tempted to cut it but I know it's my laziness that's stopping me from good hair!

I know the simple answer is I should take more time and style my hair but honestly unless I completely soak my hair every morning, it's impossible to style. I love how it looks but its so high maintenance!! Does it ever get easier the longer it gets or will this only get worse? Is there any low maintenance version or curly hair?

Right now I can't even plop it over night (which would be amazing) because it's too short to weigh down. It makes my hair stand up!

For reference I rarely wash my hair. Lately I've been trying to go as long as I can w/o shampoo. I condition every time I shower and use leave in conditioner when I'm done or a styling cream. None of my products have silicon in them.