Hazel Reason was born in Friern Barnet, London. Her father, Will Reason, was a Congregational minister who campaigned and wrote around themes of social justice and poverty (books such as Poverty, Drink and the Community, Homes and Housing, Christianity and Social Renewal).
She was educated at Milton Mount College Foreign Girls in Gravesend.
She graduated from Bedford College in 1924 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, and then obtained a position as a Senior Science Mistress at the County School for Girls, Guildford. In her spare time, she studied for an Master of Science (London) on the History of Science, which she completed in 1936. She was elected a Chemical Society Fellow in 1936.
She authored a book on the history of science, The Road to Modern Science, which was published in 1936.
A second edition appeared in 1940 and a third revised edition in 1950. She commented in the Foreword that her object was to present the story of scientific discovery in a form that would appeal to intelligent boys and girls.
She did not approve of the "great scientist approach" but rather her book covered ".. the broad view of scientific discovery.".
