Adoptive Mama Needs Help!

Hi All,
Newbie here.
I'm an adoptive mama to 2 biracial girls. My youngest has the kinkiest hair and there is SOOOOO much I don't know. Hoping to find answers here.

We got her first braids recently (she's 2.5). I'd been trying to learn on my own and had to find the pros cause it wasn't working at all ;) I realized so many things I didn't know that my black friends didn't know to tell me because it was such basic info. Like braid on dry hair!!! LOL. I'd always tried it wet because that's how I do mine and I thought the point of a protective style was to do it when the hair is wet and keep the moisture and product in. Now I'm kind of confused. I usually deep condition once a week and try to do a protective style afterwards (puffs, twists, etc). I can't get most styles to last more than a day. I'm wondering if the hair needs to be completely dry before doing any styling for it to hold? Should I blow dry or air dry? Blow dry seems to go against the whole point of deep conditioning the hair. If it air dries, her curl pattern is set and I don't really like to disrupt it - it looks so good! Also, don't know how much the mixed hair differs in it's tendency to pull out of a style. It seems like her curls have lots of slip.
Help me - I know even less than I thought and I didn't start with much ;) hahaha.

Original author: MrsWhatsit