Also: what would be a good time to wait for new growth? 3 months? 4 months?
My electrologist is using thermolysis on me (her machine can also do blend, but she prefers to use that if a person has only a very few stray hairs), and inserts/ zaps multiple times if necessary to get a hair to glide out (no tugging).
She thinks the first full clearing of legs will take 6-8 hours. How many hours in total would be a good estimation for total treatment time?
No one can give you an accurate estimate of how long it would take for the first clearing without seeing you. It depends on the number of hair follicles that need to be treated, and the speed of the electrologist.
Thats not the question, I already have that information ( and included it in the post)…
If you’re not shaving between treatments, three or four months at most.
Generally speaking for other electrologists here, they report that each subsequent clearance is roughly half the time. This is assuming the client doesn’t shave between treatments. It will be different depending on the skill of the electrologist. My electrologist has told me her treatment schedule is different to that in her experience, which is due to her lower skill level.
So this is a discussion you should have with your electrologist.
I agree with many of the comments above. One thing related to skill that the consumer can notice is, making sure the hair slides out nicely, with NO TRACTION.
I have done the three clearances on the underarms every three months when the client did not shave for over three or four months and it ended up 95% finished. Most people, women especially in America, feel the need to shave their underarms, so compliance is not always a feature, thus more clearances are required in that 12-24 month period it takes to fully complete the job…
Well I haven’t shaved for 4 months now, which is quite easy in winter. That seems to be a good thing for electrolysis. Is it because you can still see the hairs that are there, but are not growing anymore (so you wouldn’t see them if somebody would shave like a week before the appointment?)?
Just to be clear: I am not looking for a perfect estimation here, just for more information about the process (I have gotten a lot already, thank you all for that 
)and what my wisest choice would be.
I’m no expert but from what I’ve read and after having professional treatments and doing DIY, what I’ve learned is that hairs that grow back aren’t always the ones that have been killed,/treated, you’re going to get ‘shedding’, some hairs won’t be there when the electrolysis is treating you, these hairs will eventually come through, weeks /months later.
Yeah, and I would like to know how much hair I can expect as new growth (hairs that are not showing now).
Would be nice to hear some percentage or something.
Also, I hope for some people who did exactly this to share their experiences.
The percentage of existing hairs (hairs that can be treated) in 4 months of untouched legs depends on several factors:
The thickness of the hair. Thick hairs grow at a faster rate than fine hairs, so if your hair is thick enough, the% of hairs present can be around 80%. So, if your electrologist has a high kill rate and is thorough (not many hairs left untreated), the second clearance could take 3 to 4 hours. By the way, 6-8 hours for both legs is very little. You must have very low hair density.
The method used previously. If your hair is fine, and you shaved for the last time 4 months ago, you can still have hair close to the skin. This happens because the% of hairs that were in the resting phase when you shaved could still be in that phase (too short to be treated in the first clearance). Checking is easy, a cotton ball passes through the skin and if part of the cotton remains stuck to the skin, you will be facing the phenomenon described. Therefore, that% of hairs should be treated in the second or third clearance. If you have had previous laser sessions, the growth time of these hairs could still be longer since it has been proven that the laser lengthens the resting phase. In this case, it is impossible to determine the duration of the subsequent clearings.
3- The weather, and the type of clothes you have worn during these 4 months. According to some experts, hairs grow faster in summer than in winter, so this is a factor to consider. The clothes; if you usually wear tight pants, it is very likely that many of the hairs are too short due to the friction that the fabric exerts with the hair when walking. The effect is similar to shaving. It seems a trifle, but believe me, it is not.
I think that’s all. If I remember something else, I’ll let you know