Contributed by seth dog.
I myself have had quite some trouble with modeling the human head in blender. many would suggest using surface curves but i have found a much easier and satisfactory way of modeling the head by using surface spheres.
First press space to bring up the object menue, select surface than surface sphere. after selecting the sphere change the 3d view to edit, select all the vertices then press the SKEY to bring up the "special" menue, then click subdivide. You now have a sort of a big even block of clay to work with. now with a bit of practice you should be able to get the results your looking for with out all the mesy extra vertices.