Hi Cookie!
I went through similar tactics when I was younger about my hair-LOL! What a trip! What really changed that was when I found that it took a solid half-hour to blow dry my below shoulder-length hair(I was in my mid-20's at the time)and I was up for re-thinking my hair. A magazine at the time had a feature article on "free hair" - with naturally-curly people who finally embraced their natural texture with an appropriate cut by someone who knows how to deal with curly hair. One of the women in the article had similar hair texture to mine, and looked like a million bucks in the after photo! The salon featured in the article was in NYC where I was living at the time. I basically ran to the phone and set up an appointment right away. I was a bit apprehensive at first, by my cutter started with just snipping a bit in front - voila, instant, beautiful loose curls - I have never looked back since. Into the trash went my big rollers and hairdryer. To this day I don't use a dryer or any other heat-styling stuff. Color is the only thing I do(as I mentioned above), and with scrunching gel, I'm good!