How can I tame my hair? {explained better in details}?

So, I have really thick, slightly wavy, poofy hair that comes down to... hm, my armpit would be the best measurement. The problem is, it's extremely poofy and I can't do much with it. It doesn't scrunch well, if I went it and comb it out, it still gets poofy, it doesn't straighten well, and besides I hate using heat with it. I end up wearing it in braids like, 5 days out of the week 'cause there's just nothing to do with it. So how can I tame it, make it less poofy so I can actually wear it down? And are there any easy, fairly quick styles I could do with it?