Glad to see you've stopped carving up your beard as the natural look is working well for you. With regards to the brush all I can suggest is to experiment. I've got 2 kent combs, 1 kent mustache comb and a kent bristle brush and I use them all on different days depending on what state my beard is in at the time. Maybe you could very carefully trim/taper the longer hairs that poke out towards the ear if they bother you but your beard is filling in nicely and looks fine to me.