Deep conditioning with oil: Wet or Dry Hair

I have always seen ladies oil their dry hair prior to shampooing. This is what I would always do as well, but today I decided to do it a bit differently. I was thinking about putting the oil in my dirty hair and then deep conditioning and the idea seemed a bit odd to me. Instead, I decided to shampoo my hair and then apply my oils. I noticed a few things which I would like to share.

My hair seemed to be able to take more oil damp than dry. Normally when my hair is dry I have to be careful how much oil I add or I would turn into an oily mess with the oil running down my neck and down my back. Damp hair really seemed to suck up the oil. I was able to put a shower cap on and repaint my bathroom walls and not once did the oil run down my neck and back. I finally washed out my hair about three hours later and my hair was not oily. My hair felt soft and was silky to the touch.

I always get a soft and silky feel to my hair when I add oil to dry hair, but this time the feeling was more intense. I shampooed it out and was still loving how my hair felt. I can't understand it though because oil and water do not mix. I have been looking online and some people prefer damp hair and others prefer dry hair. It does seem to be a matter of personal preference. I can't actually find an explanation why it would work on wet hair when I should think that the fact that the hair is wet would prevent the oil from being absorbed? I have no idea actually. If anyone has any theories on this, please let me know.