Heather Gay Shows Us The Receipts

On The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, nobody keeps it real like Heather Gay. Whether she’s opening up about leaving the Mormon church or taking on her castmates’ big personalities with unflappable cool, she’s an anchor of relatability — and a frequent voice of reason. As the co-owner of the med spa Beauty Lab + Laser, the 51-year-old also knows better than anyone the lengths women will go to in order to look perfect. In her own words, the bestselling author and host of Bravo’s upcoming Surviving Mormonism (premiering Nov. 11) unpacks her evolving relationship with beauty and the perks of being a med-spa “guinea pig.”

Before I became a Real Housewife, when I was a single mom, I didn’t have the bandwidth or the energy to devote to self-care. The way I looked was my lowest priority. And the fact that I got cast on a television show when I was at my lowest physical beauty? That was just cruel irony.

As soon as I had the money and the time, I thought: “I am going to try to profit from every single thing that’s available to me. I can afford it, and it’s part of my job now to look good.” I always said that I’d be so much cuter if I were richer. I’m richer now — and I’m so much cuter because of it.

I live in Utah, which is all about the Mormon Church. It’s a Venn diagram of judginess and the pursuit of perfection. You want to keep up with the Joneses, and if perfection is the standard for the Joneses, then everybody’s doing whatever they can to look their very best. That’s probably why they say we have more med spas in Salt Lake City than they do in Beverly Hills.

I started getting Botox in my early 30s, which is funny because I tell my customers at Beauty Lab + Laser to start at 18. I was married to a husband who was fairly frugal, and you just can’t justify preventative Botox for thousands of dollars when it’s your husband’s money. When I started Beauty Lab, we actually built our business around that exact problem. It’s really hard to get your husband to pay for Botox and filler because he thinks it’s not natural. Even if you’re wealthy, it’s considered an unnecessary expense because you’re just supposed to look beautiful as a woman and have it be effortless. But we started letting women use their “Costco cash” — so you get $200 cash back when you do the groceries, then in a month or two, you’ve got enough for your Botox treatment. Nobody needs to know.

“Seeing myself on TV, I just scrambled: I started doing more and more injections because I didn’t like the way I looked.”

As the owner of Beauty Lab, I get everything for free. I’m the guinea pig for any new service. But if I was paying, Botox costs $800 to $1,000 per treatment. I get mine quarterly — or maybe even slightly more often if I’m filming. I also get filler, facials, and laser hair removal. My favorite hair removal is what we call the “Labzillian,” and it’s belly button to backside, so you’re smooth like a dolphin. It starts at $580 for a package of eight, and once you get those treatments, you only have to go in twice a year to maintain it.

Another treatment I get is Sculptra, which is a collagen stimulator, with big long needles on your face. It’s pretty intense, but it’s not an actual filler; it’s just a filler stimulant. They first developed it in the ’80s for AIDS patients who couldn’t generate collagen in their faces. Sculptra is $800 to $1,000 for a vial, and some people get four to six vials. It can cost around $4,000 per treatment.

I’ve been getting filler in my lips for probably seven years, and I only do lips once or twice a year — if that. I just got my lips done, and I’m going to do them again before the reunion. The standard treatment is $600. If I did pay for my treatments at Beauty Lab, my bill would be $11,912 for the year so far — but we have some Beauty Labbers who are there twice a week, and spend upwards of $8,000 a month.

“Everyone has perfect teeth, lashes, and hair. It’s what I call the required uniform of a Housewife.”

Before I was on Housewives, I’d already had two nose jobs — the first in 2015, and a corrective surgery a year later. My original nose was like my dad’s in a really big way, so I partnered with a plastic surgeon: I was doing social media for him, and he offered it for free. I had heard about NeNe Leakes on Real Housewives of Atlanta getting her nostrils tucked and thought, “That’s what I want!” But we decided to do a full nose job, and it just didn’t look good. I didn’t look like myself. So a year later, I got a revision. (I want a third nose job, but my plastic surgeon said he won’t do it because of scar tissue.)

At that time, I also got a blepharoplasty, which is an eyelid excision for opening up your eyes. I got both of these surgeries for free, from the same surgeon, but I think the nose job was around $12,000, and a blepharoplasty was $2,500.

I got the “mommy makeover” — a tummy tuck and a boob job — when I was married. (That’s why I looked so good on the cover of Us Weekly magazine in a swimsuit: I already had the foundations in place — they were surgically implanted!) My ex-husband wanted me to get it, and he paid for it. I think the tummy tuck was probably 18 to 20 grand, and the boob job was 8 to 12 grand. But the prices have gone way up — it’s now around 40 grand for a mommy makeover.

Over the last three years I’ve lost 30 pounds on GLP-1s. I started with a Ozempic, and then I switched to Mounjaro, like every other celebrity. If my weight goes up, I just go on it for a week or two. That costs around $500 a month, but at some places, it’s $1,200 a month.

“Before my glow-up, I didn’t realize the currency of beauty, or how I was perceived. I was more self-deprecating and less threatening beforehand. My jokes didn’t seem as harsh. My reads didn’t seem as mean.”

Before I lost the weight, around Season 2 or 3 of RHOSLC, I was really experimenting with filler. I had a new business, I could get whatever I wanted done, and all the injectors wanted to try stuff on me. Seeing myself on TV, I just scrambled: I started doing more and more injections because I didn’t like the way I looked. It just got to the point where my face was unrecognizable. Luckily, you mostly metabolize filler, and I think I did dissolve a little in my jawline, too. I also got off the injections after a little bit when I lost weight, because I wanted to see what my face looked like.

I had a fourth season glow-up. That’s when I was really invested in what I was wearing. I was losing weight and cared more about how I looked. I also got veneers last year, which I paid cash for — it was about 30 grand. I just feel so much better about my appearance now.

Before my glow-up, I didn’t realize the currency of beauty, or how I was perceived. I think that I was more self-deprecating and less threatening beforehand. My jokes didn’t seem as harsh. My reads didn’t seem as mean. I just didn’t see the difference — because I had never looked like this.

I think there should be no shame in people wanting to change the way they look, but I also see that the standard of beauty has become more and more artificial for women. Being on TV, it’s really, really hard to see yourself constantly and to be amongst women who are physically flawless in every way. Everyone has perfect teeth, lashes, and hair. It’s what I call the required uniform of a Housewife — and as you become more of a Housewife, it becomes more entrenched.

The pursuit of perfection is never fully possible, just like it’s not possible to be fully hair-free. (No matter how many laser hair removal treatments you get, you have to keep coming back for more!) Counting all of the things I’ve had done, I’m probably $200,000 into my physical appearance — and it was worth every penny.