I'm growing my hair for the first time in my life, and it's super thick, and in between wavy and curly also. It's just past the bra band now. I too had no idea how to take care of my hair, so I scoured the internets for tips. This is what I learned:

1. sleep on a silk pillow case or with a silk cap on. regular stuff can break your hair while you're laying on the pillow.
2. when you get out of the shower, don't use a towel on your hair. It can cause breakage. Instead, wrap your hair in an old soft t-shirt for 5 or 10 minutes.
3. say goodbye to regular brushes. Use wide toothed combs only.
4. if your curls tend to get limp or fall out during the course of the day then its probably because you are touching your hair too much. Hands off.
5. Keep the split ends trimmed as much as possible, to prevent breakage and weakening of the hair.

And then personally, I don't use shampoo or conditioner anymore. I give my scalp a massage every day while I rinse my hair, and that's enough to keep it clean and dandruff free, and not too dry. Also, I don't brush my hair until I'm about to get in the shower. It keeps the structure of the curls more intact.

Here are some of the links I used to learn about caring for long curly hair.

http://www.naturallycurly.com/ (One of my favorites)

http://www.curls.biz/

Good luck!