Please never ever brush curly hair with a boar brush (or any other kind of regular brush). It’s actually very damaging to tightly curly hair. Since our hair is thick and curly, it’s often too curly to make its way between the bristles (since it tends to fuzz up and get bigger as you brush, and the bristles are a dense thicket hard to get between). So instead of safely making its way through those bristles, the hundreds of sharp bristles rake over and over the fragile hair shafts instead, wearing out your cuticles and shredding your hair. Needless to say, brushing our hair 100 times a night is a myth. Even for those with straight hair, brushing hundreds of times will wear their hair out.

It's true I recommend using a Denman (or Denman-like) "brush". A Denman is great because it isn't really a brush, more like a multi-toothed comb that helps form curls when you brush them wet (and with lots of conditioner in the hair). The reason the Denman is different is because it only has about seven to nine rows of teeth. Therefore, it acts more like a comb with multiple rows of smooth nylon teeth, and our curls can slip easily between them. Also, since it has a rubber base, the give comes from this rubber base, rather than from your hair. This means your hair is stretched much less with a Denman than with a regular comb. Also, I feel the Denman combs our curls together, and combs comb our curls apart.

However, if you prefer, you can use a wide tooth comb (or your fingers). Anything is better than a bristle brush. Though I believe curls get better results with a Denman, and I think the Denman is more gentle on our hair because of that rubber base, a comb is still better than a bristle brush.

You can see what happens with very curly hair when brushed (or combed when dry) here: dry combing.