‘You forget you’re naked’: Myrtle Beach woman bares it all on ‘Naked and Afraid’
Nicole Pisani is a woman of contradictions.
Her daily life revolves around glamour – spending hours pampering and making others look good. But underneath the styled pink hair and makeup, the Myrtle Beach woman has had a secret obsession to leave behind all that vanity and comfort and get down to the bare essentials.
She managed to do that when she secured a spot on the TV reality show, “Naked and Afraid,” after six years of trying. So Pisani stripped down and spent 14 days in the African bush attempting to survive.
The question now is why the wife and mother of two and business owner would want to, well, put all of her business out there on national TV.
“I had to know what it was like to just have nothing,” the owner of NikkiCole’s Hair Design and Head Spa in Myrtle Beach said. “It’s not a spa day. It’s not a vacation. .... I kind of like that feral, dirty person.”
Viewers of the Discovery Channel show will get to see just how wild things got when Pisani’s episode airs at 8 p.m. March 8. She will host a watch party at Pier 14 Restaurant and Lounge, 1306 N. Ocean Blvd.
‘Africa is there to kill you’
The premise of the show is that two strangers, a male and female, are stripped of their clothes and left in some of the most extreme environments with no food, no water and only one survival item each.
Because the majority of the time is spent trying to survive, “you forget you’re naked,” Pisani said.
Pisani was given only a few days notice before she was picked up and then dropped off in Zambia last April. She was given a map, which she had to use to find her male counterpart. Pisani had to hike 12 miles in the bush without shoes. The area has all the big five game animals – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and African buffalo. Pisani couldn’t say if she encountered any of the animals on the show, but she knew they were there.
And if the animals weren’t bad enough, Pisani had to deal with snakes and “every type of bug biting you.” It also was dark, very dark, she said.
When Pisani did return home, she spent several weeks in the ICU for malaria.
“Africa is there to kill you,” Pisani said. “It’s real. It’s not fake. You are in danger.”
How she prepared for show
Pisani had wanted to be on the show since she first started watching it with her daughter during the COVID-19 pandemic which caused her to close her newly-opened salon.
To prepare for the show, Pisani would walk on gravel without shoes. She also spent time at River Island Adventures in Longs where she practiced building shelter, starting a fire and yes, camping naked in the woods on the 48-acre private island located in the middle of the river.
But even with what skills she did take with her, Pisani was not fully prepared for what she experienced.
“I enjoyed every single second, but it was miserable,” she said.
The contestants have to find their own food and water, as well as make or use anything they can find. They are allowed to choose five items to bring, and the producers pick one from the five that they can use.
Producers also provide a small sauce pan and in this instance a fire starter. Pisani said that the forest was so humid that it was near impossible to start a fire.
Pisani had a huge knife made for the show. But whether she used it to kill an animal will be something viewers will have to wait and see.
There is no prize money for being on the show. It’s mainly bragging rights, she said. Contestants can tap out at any time. Pisani wouldn’t say whether she stayed or left.
The show is 90% mental and 10% skill, Pisani said. The show has both humbled and made her stronger, Pisani said. And she didn’t hesitate to say she would do it again.
“It’s completely changed me in the best ways,” she said.
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
