“In fact, I was talking to some of my friends there the other day,” Mr. McCain added, his thinning head of white hair looking freshly shorn, “and they said they recognized too that the time has come.”

The privatization of the Senate hair shop, to be phased in over the next several years, is one of the ways that members of Congress are feeling the impact of their decision not to stop $85 billion in cuts to this year’s budget. And while their experience is hardly on par with the hardship of ordinary Americans who are absorbing cuts to programs like tuition assistance and after-school child care, inconveniences like longer lines for their guests at Capitol security and fewer taxpayer-financed trips abroad are starting to gain notice.

“With the sequester, I’ve got a pretty big hole to fill,” said Terrance W. Gainer, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who oversees various services like computers and the page program. To account for the cuts to his budget, Mr. Gainer said he offered buyouts to his entire staff. So far, four of the nine employees in the hair care unit have told him they would accept, allowing him to replace them with less expensive private contractors who will not collect federal pensions or benefits.

Mr. Gainer said he expected to cut losses in the shop to $100,000 a year from about $500,000 by privatizing. Eventually, he said, he would like to use private contractors exclusively.

“Listen, I readily realize that may not meet the timetable of a lot of people who say, ‘What is the legislative branch doing in the hair care business?’ ” he said, hastening to add that he has other, less clinical considerations like the well-being of his staff. “It’s a service organization that has a 100-year-plus history here. It’s undergone a lot of changes, and I’m slowly but surely trying to get it out of the red.”