When a woman adjusts her hair with her arms raised and thus her armpits exposed, it is a form of preening - she is attracted to someone in the vicinity and she's putting herself on display. Here Actress Valeria Golino is shown at the International Rome Film Festival. This is a sexually provocative gesture that occurs at the edge of consciousness or entirely subconsciously. Like many body language signals, in this context this maneuver occurs with the other gestures that are congruent. These groups of gestures are known as "Gesture Clusters". Here, the raising of the arms also puts the breasts on display as well as releasing pheromones / vomodors from the armpit. These chemical messengers act on the olfactory system to powerfully and subliminally attract lovers. This signal is not to be confused with other seemingly similar signals - manipulators, adaptors & pacifiers - which may also involve hair adjustment, but have completely different meanings.
