Never had any hair removal before other than wax on body but my facial hair has to go. I'm fairly patchy and I don't think it's very dense in general.
Should I go for laser or electro with my "setup". The pictured hair is 7 days old.

Thanx

In favor of laser:

Electrolysis is inefficient. Handles 1 hair at a time.
Laser is cheaper
Much less time.
Electro requires hair to grow out before the process.

In favor of electro:

Laser only gets the dark hairs
No one seems to know whether lasered hairs will eventually grow back. I've had some surprising regrowth. Electro is permanent.
Laser is not so good for people with darker complexions

If you can do laser, then I would. I'm not saying you might not have to do some electro eventually but it will keep the cost down. I'm fortunate that I'm able to have laser done. Another big factor besides costs is whether or not you have gone full time yet because of the having to grow it out factor for electro.

I keep hearing mixed feelings about laser some people love it some hate it. I've been getting laser and its been going great i've had 4 sessions and pretty much only have hair on my chin, little of the upper lip and a bit left on my cheeks. cant really give a good review until maybe a year after my last treatment to see if I get regrowth. but so far I'm happy with the results I've got 4 more sessions to go and it cost me $700 for beard and neck. It takes about 15 minutes at most for one session but it can be a quite painful 15 minutes but totally worth it. the electrologists near me charge I think they said $30 for 15 minutes. and would take hours to do a full beard. I plan on finishing my laser to remove the bulk of the hair then move onto electro if needed.

Over the years I have run into a few trans women who have not had anything positive to say about laser. That doesn't mean it doesn't work. To be honest I did my facial hair removal about 15 years ago so I am sure a lot has changed since then. The only thing I can say is that the only sure fire way to permanently remove hairs was blend electrolysis. That's what the successful people told me to do, and that's what I did. It's a pain, it's very slow, but all of these years later I can say unequivocally that it does indeed work. I did my face by starting with flash. In about 100 hours I was down to a clearing. Then I switched to blend. Tough hairs especially chin hairs were done with blend only. I also did exclusively blend on the upper lip. I am going to say when I hit maybe 130 or so hours of treatment is the last day I have ever put a razor to my face. I have never shaved again. That's proof enough for me

After 6 laser sessions, nearly all the pigmented hair returned in my case.  I have recently switched to a different type of laser, and my new clinic is much more professional about taking photos to verify whether the hair density is reducing.  But I am sceptical about the eficacy of laser on my face. Some people have better results than others, and it's unpredictable.

By contrast electro is definitely permanent at some point.  It is said that each time you clear an area, around 30% of it does not return, so it gradually goes down.  But it is slow, expensive and hellishly painful, particularly around the mouth area.  Even with an extra-strength anaesthetic, last week I burst into tears from the pain after 2 hours of electro around my mouth. 

If you are planning to head in an M2F direction, I very very strongly recommend you start getting rid of your hair as soon as possible, as either technique has strong disadvantages once you start presenting as a woman:

- If you do laser, you have 2 blissful hairless weeks, and then the blue top lip returns.  It's not so pretty.
- If you do electro, you have to let around 2-3 mm of hair grow out.  A bearded lady.  It's not so pretty.

Neither of the above are totally possible to hide with makeup, and if you do use makeup it needs to be thick.

Laser is great at killing off the dark hairs which you seem to have plenty of as long as the technician is competent at doing their job. When I was doing laser I could get a session done then have some reddening of the skin and a few hours after that look perfectly fine. Everyone is different though so have a backup plan for anyone asking questions as to why your face is different looking.

Blonde, gray, or very light brown hairs will not be effected by laser and only electrolysis can get rid of them. I'm full time now and after my every two week electrolysis session I have red bumps for one week where the probe was inserted into my face. So it sucks that I have the bumps and that I have to let my hair grow out for a dysphoric week in the process. But with each passing session my facial hair is going away so that's the motivator right there.

  I started with laser both because I got it very cheap and because it would reduce the time and intensity ( = pain + cost) required for electro after.  My face was always an irritated disaster from beard re-growth and chronic ingrown hairs so I would be doing all this whether or not I was transitioning.  (I've heard from the technicians that many male clients have come to them for the same reason.)  I did 13 sessions over the course of a year and it made a huge difference for me.  Laser also provides some bonus skin rejuvenation, which I certainly appreciated.  I have no idea if the growth reduction would have been permanent because I went straight into electro next.  Laser carried me through the tough early days of my transition by substantially reducing the coarseness and growth rate of my beard hair.

  For my electro I require three hours per session each week to get a thorough clearing.  At 70-something hours so far I can handle going out en femme even with the weekly regrowth because it is so much finer and mostly white/blond now.  I haven't shaved ever since my first session - this alone is glorious!  If you don't want to have to shave any longer I don't think it would be possible without committing to extensive electro.

  To sum up, a little laser first isn't going to break the bank, will help give quick gains, the sessions are short and they'll help build up your pain tolerance for electro.  Electro after and for a long time there on will guarantee permanent results.

  I swear there should be some kind of medal handed out for making it through this torture.

From what I understand even if laser gets all of your facial hair, you will still need yearly update treatments. This is what I saw on a site for a hair removal professional.