My gf got a very nice one in Japan for around $300 USD, it’s quite effective but takes a fair amount of time to use. It’s the price of like, two appointments and can be used indefinitely. I wouldn’t recommend if you plan to do it all yourself though, I can’t imagine how she’d do it herself in certain areas and just getting consistent and even coverage everywhere is way easier when someone else is doing it. If you have a partner that’s willing to spend 1-2 hours a week doing it it’s probably worth it though! She really enjoys being silky smooth everywhere (can’t deny that I appreciate it as well) and it does the job quite well.

I can’t speak too much on efficacy for facial hair though as she’s cis with only the slightest whisper of hair on her upper lip. It completely removes that but I’m not sure how well it does against thicker and denser facial hair. Considering how effective it is in other areas though you’d probably just need to do more frequent maintenance for a longer period. It would probably need to be about the same frequency as shaving normally would be so unfortunately I don’t think it would save much time and effort until many months of use. It does for sure shrink the pores over time and slow hair regrowth, after a few months of use we’ve switched to like 2-3 times a month for maintenance and expect to eventually not need it at all. I’ve tried it on myself plenty and don’t think it’s very painful but ymmv. As pbcupola mentioned, the face specifically is dangerous for accidentally blinding yourself so again I would only recommend if you have someone willing to do it for you