rob, an advice:
if you want it to be more realistic, I suggest you split the head into several groups where you want them to be evidently different, say, the ears. if you keep them welded to the head, the nif will appear smoothed in that part.
I don't know if that will affect the porting, since in bodies you need body joints and that's done in 3dstudio. but if not, give it a go, it might add better quality without extra polycount