The national security minister waxed lyrical over a plea for beauty salons to extend their range of services despite restrictions forced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wayne Caines said he had been bombarded by requests, from the public and businesses, for a variety of businesses to resume full operations — but that the demand from women for waxing had topped the list as the country prepared for tomorrow’s start of Phase 3 of a four-stage return to normal life.

He wrote on Facebook that “hundreds of people have been contacting me with a myriad of concerns”.

But Mr Caines said that most lobbying of the ministry had not come from clergy who wanted to reopen their churches, parents asking for schools to restart, or people who wanted the curfew axed — but for waxing services to “recommence posthaste”.

He added he was also contacted by a salon owner who begged for a rethink on the waxing ban after more than 400 queries had come from women asking for the treatment.

Mr Caines said: “I had no idea that waxing was so important, critical, vital, pivotal.”

The minister — who does not command a parliamentary majority in his own Southampton household — added that even his wife and daughter, both named Maxanne, had petitioned him.

Barbers and beauty salons were allowed to offer “limited services” when Phase 2 of the relaxation of restrictions came into effect on May 20.

But close-contact work such as beard trimming remained off limits.

Mr Caines said it was “noteworthy” that beards would not get professional attention in Phase 3, either.

He added that the men of Bermuda had “stood fast and we have grown our beards in the understanding that the growing of our beards is for the greater good of our country”.

But Mr Caines, a former captain in the Royal Bermuda Regiment, admitted he had been forced to fight a rearguard action at home after his stout defence of the rules failed to bring reinforcements.

He added: “I will simply say the Minister of National Security’s professional opinion was not appreciated.”