Completely agree with Olivia Anne. I've actually had a year and a half of electrolysis (one session a week) and laser. The electrolysis was the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life and it was insanely expensive (about $70 a week). It kept me clear but because of a scheduling snafu where I her timeslots were filled by her receptionist and didn't have room for me, I had to go two months without electrolysis. My hair ALL came back and it felt like I wasted thousands of dollars and tons of time. I was extremely distraught, and my gender therapist told me that her clients had been having success with laser, and asked me to consider it.
After my 7th or 8th treatment, my facial hair is almost completely cleared, and any remaining hair takes weeks to grow back. And I've only spent 700-800 on laser thus far, and it was much less time consuming, and SIGNIFICANTLY less painful than electrolysis.
I think that if I had stuck with electrolysis for several more years, that I would have gotten a similar result, but I'm extremely happy with the results for the relatively minimal effort I've put into laser thus far.
Knowing what I know now from personal experience, if I had to do it all over again, I would not have bothered with electrolysis and would have tried laser first. If it grew back, I would just get a yearly touch-up. I would also consider laser as my primary removal tool, and electrolysis to take care of the stray remaining hairs that laser couldn't remove. I also have a Tria, and I'll likely just use that if any stray hairs grow back in the future.
This is assuming that you are a good candidate for laser. If you have blond, red, or grey hairs, then electrolysis will probably work out better for you.