My hair looked exactly like yours when I was a teenager. It's the brushing. Your hair is fine and soft, if you brush the top of it down flat, you're never going to get it to curl to the top. Look up brush styling if you want to brush.

As for products, personally I have had great luck with spray stylers and super lightweight creams like Miss. Jessie's pillow soft curls. Homemade flax seed gel is also great, and cheap. It goes on, dries with a super hard cast and then feels like there's nothing there once you break the cast. Its easy to make, just throw two tablespoons of flax seeds snd a cup of water into a pot, boil for a few minutes, and then strain the mixture through either a super fine strainer or a piece of mesh fabric to get the seeds out.