Beautiful curls you've all got! And really long ones in-between too

I'm have some bad hair days at the moment because I don't have time to let my hair air dry in the morning and then it get flat and not very nice looking. Any advise on that?? And maybe some advise on how to get the crown pieces to curl better?? It's in the back of my crown the curls tend to stretch/get flat... And I do not like it!

Here are some pictures of my hair - a few months old and also before/after cutting it myself.