Warning: Spoilers for Survivor seasons 49 and 50 ahead.
Before she arrived in Fiji to compete on Survivor season 49 last April, Savannah Louie amped up her workout routine. She took bootcamp classes to improve her strength and endurance, did hot yoga to condition her body for the island heat, and worked out after fasting to get used to exerting herself while hungry and weak. She prepped aesthetically, too. Before the 26 days of filming began, she made a point of getting a gel manicure and having her hair colored. She’d already gotten laser hair removal, and was reaping the wrinkle-reducing benefits of a recent Botox appointment. After all, on Survivor you don’t have access to makeup, skin care, or even a shower—but Louie and some other contestants still managed to look camera-ready at all times.
As a former newscaster, Louie already knew how much work it takes to look good on screen. But she wasn’t the only contestant that season who prepared this way—and fans noticed. “Why does this cast seem so well-groomed and polished?” asked one Redditor in r/survivor. In the comments, fans speculated on a laundry list of beauty treatments contestants might have had done: Eyebrow microblading and lamination, lip blushing and tinting, lash lifts and extensions, laser hair removal, keratin hair treatments, teeth whitening, gel manicures, Botox, fillers, the list goes on.
They weren’t wrong. But pre-show cosmetic interventions haven’t always been the norm. The competition series has a long and complicated relationship with beauty—and the contestants’ newly snatched appearances reflect not just the way the show has changed but the way society around it has changed, too.
Survivor premiered in 2000, and watching the early seasons, you can tell. Beautiful women (and men—you’ve seen photos of Boston Rob in 2002, right?) were key to the show’s marketing strategy. One of its most-referenced early scenes featured contestants Heidi Strobel and Jenna Morasca stripping naked in exchange for chocolate and peanut butter in a 2003 episode titled “Girls Gone Wilder.” In 2015, CBS promoted the show on its website by publishing a photo slideshow of female contestants with the headline “The 36 Hottest Bikinis Ever Worn on Survivor.”
But back then, beauty on Survivor was a lot less… polished. Parvati Shallow, one of Survivor‘s best-known players, first competed on Survivor 13: Cook Islands in 2006 and went on to compete in four other seasons through 2025. She tells me that when she found out she’d been cast on the show for the first time, she only had one piece of beauty prep in mind. “The only thing I did before Cook Islands was laser hair removal for my bikini and my underarms,” Shallow says, recalling the way cameras would often pan up and down women’s bodies. “There is always a challenge where you’re holding your arms over your head. I saw that and said, ‘I’m not gonna be the girl with the hairy pits.'” But otherwise, she says, “On Survivor, you’re going to be covered in dirt and look a little like a caveman. I just accepted that.” Her prep remained low-key for her next three appearances, but for Survivor Australia v. the World in 2025, she says she got Botox “because I get very squinty in the sun.”