This is called the king of asanas and a very important pose especially for concentration and meditation. However it should not be attempted by folks suffering from hi blood pressure or retinal problems and glaucoma. Or if one is overweight.
Though one can use the support of a wall if you are doing inversion for the first time. It's best not to take support and raise the legs with control at all times. The way we learnt in India was not to have any pressure on the head and neck initially. Once you're experienced the head and neck can take some pressure however the forearm and shoulder are supporting majority of the weight.
This is not taught in US as much as it should be. Encourage everyone to try it out.

I would say that shoulderstand is easier to do do but it depends on che health oficial your lower back and how strong your abs aré

one should practice this sirsasana under expert guidance otherwise it may cause severe neck or back injury...

i am loving this pose and am going to attempt to teach it in class next week. nice to read the comments above.

I just started to learn this pose and the first thing that my teacher taught me was to start it with trying to stand up and then doing a summerasault forward, learn to quickly untie the hands and fall over without any pain. that took away the fear of falling over. helped me a lot =)