First four pics are right after leaving the hair salon, next four are from the other day

So I’m pretty new to having curly hair, this is my first time growing it out and I was entirely assuming my hair would grow out straight like most women in my family and treating it as such. But when I went to a salon for the first time a few weeks back my hairdresser revealed that my hair is a lot curlier than I thought and gave me this kinda layered shaggy look that I really liked! But my attempts to recreate this styling since then have been less than successful. I believe that all she did was wash and condition it, apply mousse, finger curl while wet, and then diffused it. I’ve been attempting most of the same except air drying instead of diffusing, and I feel like my hair always just ends up kind of chaotic looking and flat in places. I’d really like to be able to achieve the all around curly/wavyness I walked out of that salon with

Currently attempting to follow the CG beginner guide so I’ve been using: Reset wash - V05 Ocean Refresh Cowash and general conditioner - TRESemme Coconut Nourish Gel - LA Looks Extreme Sport

Some days I’ve also tried using a mousse, Cake Whipped Curl Mousse, instead of the gel but the results seem similar. Am I doing something wrong in my styling and approach, or should I look into other products? Styling wise I’ve just been squishing the conditioner in, leaving a little extra on, and then applying the gel or mousse and trying to finger coil everything but I have trouble keeping track of which hair strands I’ve already curled and I’m never quite sure how to handle the shorter strands on the sides or top. In terms of my hair type I believe it’s low porosity (based on float test) and either fine or medium (I can feel it between fingers if I roll a strand but just barely)

Would greatly appreciate any tips, I feel so out of my depth here even after reading the CG guide