"Tom Brown encountered 'a pick-pocket, who measuring my estate by the length and bulkiness of my new wig (which God knows is not paid for) he made a dive into my pocket.' Thieves targeted the wigst themselves. Small boys in baskets would ride on the heads of adults and snatch the wigs of passers-by. Edward Short of St. Martin-in-the-Fields was indicted for robbing Peter Newell on the highway 'of a hat value 2s and a periwig value 5s.'
Thomas Giblet was 'going under Ludgate with a perriwig in a band-box' when he was 'thrust up to the wall by the prisoner and some persons, who took the wig from him.'
When John Matthews was condemned 'for privately stealing 24 ounces of hair out of Mr. Trottes' shop, and 2 perrruques out of Mr. Newth's, he admitted that 'being without employment, and in great straights, he had of late years given himself to this way of stealing hair and perruques out of a barber's shop.
"At first a wig had been a mark ofa gentleman, but gradually wigs permeated down to the lower levels of society. Men thought nothing of combing their wigs in public. The breeze on the Thames made travelling about the metropolis hazardous for wig wearers and, of course, wigs presented a sorry sight in the rain."
Maureen Waller, 1700 Scenes from London Life..