I am using the mac version of blender and trying to do this tutorial:
First I need to set a background image from which to model the head from, but I am unable to find that option. I read from a tutorial that it should be somewhere in the view menu, but as you can see from the image below, there is no such option.
That tutorial is for an old version of blender and you used to add them through the view menu but in current versions of blender press N to show the properties panel. You add background images from there. The options are far superioir to those in old versions. You can have different images for different views.
Tutorial for setting background images http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/03/15/using-multiple-background-images-in-2-5/. Note that you must be in orthographic view for the images to show. Toggle between orthographic and perspective views with numpad 5