There are some procedures to help you out. Some ladies make a ponytail or a braid, a braid can help to keep the hair out of your way if you start braiding on top of your head instead of at the back. Make a loose braid, don't tighten it. Best results were reported by several ladies so far who use a satin pillow cover. The hair can slide easily over the satin and does not tangle as much as with a wool cover sheet.
Hair is curly because the single hair varies in thickness.
The hair cell produces in repeating time phases a thicker or thinner diameter of hair while growing the hair. If you have curly hair yourself, look at a hair you lost, put it on a white paper to get the best contrast. You can see it for best with quite curly hair, if you have those wide hair curls all women dream of, it is not so easy to see. These differences in hair thickness can of course not be seen with permed hair - here it is a chemical substance which softens the hair shortly and hardens it again while it is on the curler, for that it remains in a curly shape. After washing, de tangle your hair with your fingers.