As an incentive to myself to keep growing, I bought a lovely boar hair brush today. The best part is that the wood is 100% natural, the box was 100% recycled, and the rubber pad is 100% recycled.
    But as I brushed my hair, I noticed several strands stuck in the bristles. I have another brush, and that one is entirely hard plastic with plastic bristles sticking out of it. There is no rubber pad on my other brush. I have found (when I had longer hair) that I didn't have to clean hair out of that brush as much as others.
    I know that boar hair brushes distribute natural oil, but can the rubber pad also cause breakage? What kinds of brushes do you like best?

I don't think the rubber pad can cause breakage. It's just supposed to act like a cushion so brushing your head doesn't hurt as much. The hairs are probably loose hairs, boar bristle brushes are supposed to help remove loose hairs as well. I have a nice cheap boar bristle brush. It's all natural boar, on a nice wood base. I had one with a pad before it was nice but it was only plastic and the head snapped off the handle. I wouldn't worry my brush gets full of hairs after awhile. As long as they're matching your length their loose hairs, anything shorter is breakage. Besides you lose up to 100 hairs a day on average. No wonder the bathtub drain is always clogged.  ;D