are not practiced by menstruating females? Are you female?
Just for laughs get your bp checked again, they don't call it the silent killer for nothing! ;}

When I was younger and doing the headstand regularly I noticed the same thing with the red dots on the skin, occasional broken bloodvessels in the eyes etc. It never caused any problems and I just took it as a side effect of ever longer headstand sessions.

As for the pressure in the head, of course that's normal especially in the beginning. You get blood rushing to the head in ways it hasn't before - but the pressure should decrease over time. If all of a sudden during regular and routing headstand practice it starts increasing for no appearent reason, I would also suspect high blood pressure. As with anything else in Yoga, stop before the point of pain or if it feels wrong in any way. And do check your blood pressure.

I know nothing about yoga so I wonder, if you did some other form
of exercise such as a sustained effort to touch your toes,
perhaps with your arms behind your back hands locked together,
yes it stretches the hamstrings, but also brings blood to the head
without undue pressure. Worth a try and cheaper than the doc.
Margie

I know your question about the headstand was posted in 2007, but just wanted to say I have recently experienced the same thing. I have a feet-up stool which takes all the weight on my shoulders and lets my head and neck hang freely. I used it a lot last summer with no adverse effects, but got it out again about 6 weeks ago and like you I had burst blood vessels like red pin pricks /freckles all around my forehead and the sides of my face and some around my eyes. I am otherwise fit, in my 40s. The rash faded in a week and I wasn't sure it was the head stand that caused it. But I used the stool again yesterday and the same thing happened. Very frustrating as I like to use the stool to free up my neck. Did you, or anyone else, find out the cause or cure for this strange phenomenon? ( I don't have high blood pressure or dark circles around my eyes though I did get an optical migraine 6 months ago following the NHS replacing my contraceptive pill with a cheaper version which I stopped taking).