How was Persephone to know that he had not been staring at anything that he classified as 'inappropriate'? His definition of the word was likely very different from her own, and by her own she imagined he actually had been. Because she viewed staring at her gills or natural hair, or any of those features she had that others were not meant to see, as inappropriate. If someone wanted to stare at her as a human then they could feel free. Even if she thought that her hair was hideous this color. Did not matter. What mattered was that he had mentioned her other hair. Which meant that he was not doing what a lot of people would have and just brushing it off as maybe something that he had not actually seen. His eyes playing tricks on him. And Persephone was quite possibly the world's worst liar so what was she even supposed to say? I'm sorry I have no idea what you're talking about... do you mean there's something wrong with my hair now? What do you think that you saw? Perhaps it would be better to try with the latter. People always liked being given space to figure things out. If she was guilty of trying to direct those thoughts then so be it. It would be better to nudge this man towards thoughts that she preferred instead of letting him wonder about what she might be.
"My other hair? I'm sorry, is there something so wrong with this hair that you're thinking it's a different color? I know there are turtles in this pond, maybe you saw one of them surfacing for a breath of fresh air. They're not very skittish so they don't mind my presence." For all she knew one might have done just that. Though truthfully she knew that it was her hair that he had seen. Fluttering her fingers on the surface of the water to create several ripples, Persephone tried to think of something that might steer his mind away from the topic that she most definitely did not want him thinking about - her and any 'abnormalities' that he might have seen. "Are you thinking about nature? I know that when I think about the trees and birds and how everything works I can lose track of where I am."