When you sculpt a doll, do you prefer starting from the head?

I thin it's good to start with the whole doll, base forms around a core first, before you get into the details so that you have a better idea of where they are headed first, because what you have in mind and how dolly decides it's going to behave when sculpted can be entirely different. Then remove the cores once you have the doll built up to about a 2mm thickness, after that try building up some more and then you can start in on details. And I would suggest, as nymphia dolls does her ceramic dolls, sand down the bases before you evens tart on the details so you get a even surface to work on and can see where to put things. Then just sort of, work where it feels natural in the moment!

 

You can use anything that is more or less a sphere in the right size as placeholder for the eyes. Beads, marbles, wooden balls, ball bearings and so on. You can even make your own out of your sculpting material of choice.

What parts I start with varies a lot as I have made dolls using a large range of different materials over the years and the materials does dictate a lot when it comes to work flow. But I do typically start from the inside. Most material does require you to work in layers in one way or another and building some sort of an armature and cores to get the over all shape, volume and proportions right saves a lot on both working time and materials.
When sculpting a full doll I will usualy start by blocking out the body in some way. I want a three dimensional representation of what I am making as soon as possible so that I can spot any mistakes in size and proportions before I've spent too much time and effort. If I am making a doll to match other dolls in scale and style this is especcially important. Fail faster, and all that.
I do often make placeholder parts for things like head, hands and feet to have something to play around with before I spend all the time to do any detailed sculpting, but it will vary a bit depending on what I'm making and how familiar and confident I am with the parts. I have a lot more experience with generic humans than with specific fantasy creatures, for example.
Once that is done, the order of the body parts doesn't much matter. I usually alternate between different areas and smooth out and add details as I go.
The head nearly always comes after the body when I'm making a full doll. It's the first thing that people look at and it's so important that it's proportional to the body and fits in with it style-wise. It is also normally just two parts and has a rather simple and limited amout of engineering compared to many of the other parts of the doll, so It's not the most time consuming part. If I am working towards a deadline I will want the body out of the way so I can fully focus on the head when making it. It makes time management easier.