Well I know how hard it is to build your very first head model, so I wanted to wish you luck, since I am too working on a self-portrait head using a combo. of a few 3D graphics programs (mostly Rhino and some of 3D Viz, which is very similar to 3D Max). Good luck, and I hope to see more of what it looks like as you progress!

~CGPMaya84 (also DragonTU84 from SimplyPhotoshop and CPAnimate84 from SimplyMax)