STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

My hair's a mix of mostly curly with some waves added in.

I usually run serum through my wet hair, then mix a curl product (my favorites are Bumble and bumble Curl Creme or Kerastase Creme Elasto Curl) with a little gel (not too sticky) and coat my hair, and then air dry.

Hopefully this will work for your waves. You might not even need the gel, the curl product might be enough to bring out/hold the waves.

My hair is naturally pretty freakin curly. I scrunch in Garnier Fructis Curl Construct Mousse, then let it air dry for about 10 or 15 minutes. I blow dry with a diffuser - seriously, curly hair shouldn't be dried without one! - upside down and then flipped side to side to get volume. Blow drying takes 10 minutes at most. You don't ever want to over dry it - you'll get frizzies galore and curly hair needs all the moisture it can get. Also, the less you touch it while you blow dry, the better. You want to keep the curls intact! After I blow dry, I put Frederic Fekkai Glossing Cream to help tame frizzies, add shine, and to add shape to limp curls. Sometimes I use a small barrell curling iron on a few random pieces to give it more definition and add a lil oomph.
A few of the girls in my office have straight hair with a little bit of a wave they wanted to enhance. I bought them some curl construct mousse and said 'have at it!' and now we're all sporting curly do's. :)