I started electrolysis almost a year ago on my face. How much progress should I be seeing after this amount of time? I go every week for one hour. She began treating the sides of my face and upper lip. She is still treating those areas and has added my chin, neck and eyebrows. I assume I am making good progress since she has been able to move on to other areas. So how do I know if it is working effectively? How much longer will I need to continue on these areas? Eventually I want her to do my fingers and toes then my arms so I know I’ll be going for a while but I’d like to start spending less time on my face.
Have you discussed these concerns with your electrologist? How much time was dedicated to the sides of your face and lip in the beginning compared with now? Did you request the additional areas or did she suggest it? You can tell if electrolysis is working by comparing hair density before you started and now. After one year, a significant of hair should be permanently removed. During the treatment do you notice a smooth release (little or no traction) when the hair is extracted or does it feel like tweezing?
There’s really not enough information included in your post to come to much of a conclusion. Are you a male treating your beard area or a female treating the sideburns, I’m not sure… Also, any relevant information as to what machine and what technique she’s using (blend, therm, galvanic?) how long are your sessions and frequency over the course of the year? Pictures can also be good as well! 
I wanted her to do the other areas so when she felt like I was making progress she asked if there were any other areas I wanted her to treat. It doesn’t feel like tweezing at all. I just feel a small stabbing like pain. The amount of hair seems to have decreased. In the beginning she spend almost the whole hour on just the sides and maybe 10 minutes on the upper lip. Now she spends about 30 minutes or so on the sides and upper lip combined and the other 30 on the neck and eyebrows.
So I’m just wondering if that sounds like good progress? I had a lot of hair on the sides of my face when I began. It is thin but long and went from the sideburn area almost to my lip and up my cheeks.
I am a female. I have been going for almost a year (started november last year) every week for one hour a week. I missed a couple weeks for her/my vacation. She uses the blend method and I’m not sure of the name of the machine. I don’t have any pictures, sorry. The hairs are fine but long and would not be able to come out right in a picture.
Fine hairs are probably the hardest and IMO, most annoying to work with. They hardly ever come out fully destroyed with thermolysis. I’m actually having a similar process done right now above my beard line for longer virgin hairs so don’t worry, i can relate. The ‘vellus hair treatment’ thread hair might give you some more info and it seems the Blend method probably would be an efficient route to take considering the hairs on your face aren’t thick. You’re getting the good ol’ acidic lye the galvanic current produces and (hopefully) a gentle shot of heat mixed in. You should be right on track with progress, those hairs are tough to kill.