I think the only answer to that one is to spend a lot of time and money finding out what shampoo, conditioner and drying (towel, blow etc...) works for your hair, very few people I know can pull it off but there are some and they all use pretty expensive / specialised shampoo and conditioners, even sea salt sprays, heat protection sprays and the like.
If you have damaged hair then product is sort of needed.
Hmm, interesting. I never thought of that solution before. Maybe it's worth finding out if there is a shampoo/conditioner that can prevent my hair from sticking out when it's short in length.
I wouldn't say I get bothered about it, but I've never really had the balls to try anything more adventurous than just getting it buzzed down all over.
This is its natural state:
No idea where to go from there.
But your hair is perfect, man! It's straight but still quite wavy. My hair is like those brooms you can get at supermarket. I'd love to have hair like yours. My hair can only look like that if I apply some styling wax and provided it's of certain length.