Ronnie Cohen is a prize-winning freelance writer in Northern California and has regularly contributed to the New York Times and Reuters Health. Cohen was a contract stringer for Reuters News and spent a decade working as a staff reporter for the Press Democrat, a daily newspaper in Santa Rosa, California. She has also written for The Guardian, Mother Jones, Pacific Standard, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, Ladies’ Home Journal and numerous other media outlets.
Social and economic pressures have long compelled Black girls and women to straighten their hair. But mounting evidence shows chemical straighteners — products with little regulatory oversight — may pose cancer and other health risks.
